CNN Flash Poll: Majority of debate watchers say Harris outperformed Trump onstage

Registered voters who watched Tuesday’s presidential debate broadly agree that Kamala Harris outperformed Donald Trump, according to a CNN poll of debate watchers conducted by SSRS. The vice president also outpaced both debate watchers’ expectations for her and Joe Biden’s onstage performance against the former president earlier this year, the poll found.

Registered voters who watched Tuesday’s presidential debate broadly agree that Kamala Harris outperformed Donald Trump, according to a CNN poll of debate watchers conducted by SSRS. The vice president also outpaced both debate watchers’ expectations for her and Joe Biden’s onstage performance against the former president earlier this year, the poll found. Debate watchers said, 63% to 37%, that Harris turned in a better performance onstage in Philadelphia. Prior to the debate, the same voters were evenly split on which candidate would perform more strongly, with 50% saying Harris would do so and 50% that Trump would. And afterward, 96% of Harris supporters who tuned in said that their chosen candidate had done a better job, while a smaller 69% majority of Trump’s supporters credited him with having a better night. Voters who watched the debate also left with improved views of Harris compared with their impressions pre-debate, while few changed their opinions of Trump overall. Their views of each candidate’s strengths on the issues continued to reflect the dynamics seen in national polling, with Trump holding an advantage on the economy, immigration and being commander in chief, and Harris more trusted on abortion and protecting democracy. The vast majority who tuned in said it had no effect on their presidential decision, although among the debate watchers, Trump supporters were more likely than Harris supporters to say the event gave them reason to reconsider. The results of the flash poll mark a shift from the reaction to the June presidential debate, when voters who watched the matchup between Trump and Biden said, 67% to 33%, that Trump outperformed his Democratic rival. That June debate was a rare presidential debate win for Trump: In 2020 and 2016, Biden and Hillary Clinton were seen by debate watchers as outperforming him across the presidential debates. The poll’s results reflect opinions of the debate only among those voters who tuned in and aren’t representative of the views of the full voting public. Debate watchers in the poll were 6 points likelier to be Republican-aligned than Democratic-aligned, making for an audience that was about 4 percentage points more GOP-leaning than all registered voters nationally.