In the poll, 63 percent of those who watched the debate — a group that is not representative of the electorate as a whole — said Harris won. Just 37 percent said Donald Trump won the debate.
Harris’ apparent victory is notable because the same group of voters went into the debate with mixed expectations. Asked before the debate whom they thought would win, 50 percent predicted Harris, and 50 percent chose Trump.
The flash survey was conducted Tuesday night by text message with voters recruited ahead of time who agreed to be surveyed after the debate was over. The margin of error for the poll — which does not reflect the electorate as a whole — is plus or minus 5.3 percentage points.
The results diverge sharply from the June debate between Trump and President Joe Biden. A flash poll conducted immediately following that debate showed two-in-three voters who watched it picked Trump as the winner, with just one-third calling Biden the winner.
The vice president’s performance against Donald Trump, in which she repeatedly baited him and knocked him off balance, was a far cry from President Joe Biden’s disastrous June debate. And it gave Democrats the role reversal they had hoped for after their switch at the top of the ticket, according to Politico.
The two candidates entered the debate deadlocked in the polls — and in a deeply polarized nation, the race is still likely to remain close. But voters got their first look at Harris going toe-to-toe with Trump, and she did more than hold her own.
MNA/PR
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