Kamala Harris's approval rating

Approval rating vs favorability. A job-approval rating asks whether people approve of how someone is handling a current office. Because Harris left the vice presidency in January 2025 and holds no office today, there is no job to rate - so this page reports what pollsters actually ask about her: whether Americans have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of her. That favorability number is the honest answer to "Kamala Harris approval rating."

Source: Marquette Law School Poll national surveys, a nonpartisan academic poll of U.S. adults. Each figure is copied verbatim from the linked release. The October 2024 reading (before Harris left office) is the comparison Marquette itself cites in its November 2025 release. Latest data: May 20-26, 2026.

Source: Economist/YouGov national poll toplines. Favorable and unfavorable totals are the values printed in each YouGov release. As a further check, the Civiqs continuous online tracker of registered voters put Harris at about 38% favorable to 55% unfavorable as of July 6, 2026 - consistent with the two trackers above.

Favorability is a broad-audience sentiment number: it asks all Americans - Democrats, Republicans, and independents - whether they view Harris favorably. That makes it useful for gauging her general-election standing, but it is not the same as support inside a Democratic primary.

• Favorability, not job approval: Harris holds no office, so there is no job-approval number; the figures above are favorable-versus-unfavorable opinion.
• Two consistent trackers: Marquette (academic) and Economist/YouGov both ask the same question every wave, so the direction of the number is measured cleanly; both show her net-negative through 2025 and 2026.
• A house-effect gap: Marquette runs a few points more unfavorable than YouGov; that spread is normal and is why this page shows both rather than a single figure.
• Primary vs general: despite net-negative national favorability, Harris leads most early 2028 Democratic primary polls, because a primary is decided by Democratic voters, among whom she is well known and better rated.

For where the 2028 field stands overall, see our 2028 primary polls and prediction-market odds.

Harris is one of the most-discussed possible 2028 Democratic candidates and leads most early national primary surveys, yet her favorability among all adults is clearly underwater. Both things are true at once: a candidate can be the best-known name in her party's primary while still being viewed unfavorably by the broader electorate. Whether that gap narrows will be one of the central questions of a 2028 campaign, if she runs. She has not declared, and these numbers can move well before then.

See our Democratic candidates 2028 hub, is Kamala Harris running in 2028?, and Harris's full 2028 profile for the bigger picture. Favorability numbers on this page are updated when a new Marquette or Economist/YouGov reading is released.