Swing voters compare Harris to Obama in Wisconsin focus group
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama at an event to mark the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act in the East Room of the White House on April 5, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Some Wisconsin swing voters say they are "relieved" or "cautiously optimistic" when they see Vice President Kamala Harris, according to our latest focus group with Engagious/Sago.
Why it matters: These voters, who backed President Biden in 2020 after backing former President Trump in 2016, indicated that Harris injects new energy into the 2024 race.
- "She thinks things out and I like that, when she talks, she does it with a sense of authority and that means a lot," said respondent Dolly A.
- "When I hear her talk, she talks eloquently and that makes a big difference to me."
- While a focus group is not a statistically significant sample like a poll, the responses show how some voters are thinking and talking about current events.
Driving the news: When asked which of the last three Democratic Party nominees Harris is most similar to, nine of the 12 respondents said former President Obama.
- "To me, I think they're both really high energy speakers, very eloquent with their words and it kind of says to me, leadership," said respondent Jerry M.
- "I think they bring a new ... intelligence and energy to an outgoing kind of stuffy administration," said Sebastian P.
- Nine of the respondents are independent, two are Democrats and one is a Republican.
Between the lines: "Even though Harris serves alongside Biden, and is the same gender as Hillary Clinton, most respondents said that among the last three Democratic nominees, Harris is most similar to Obama," said Rich Thau, President of Engagious, who moderated the focus groups.
Zoom in: 11 of the 12 respondents said, if they had to hypothetically bet $50 on the results of the 2024 election, Harris would win.
- "She's Black, she's a woman. I feel like that is two things that most people are going to focus on her, age, what she looks like ... That's a good push for her, I think a lot of people are just going to vote for that," said respondent Tierra H.
- "A lot of people of color are going to be like, they want to see someone of color, they want to see someone that looks like them," Tierra H. said.
- "I think [Hillary] Clinton would've won if people weren't apathetic last time and I know people are not apathetic now," said John G.
Four of the 12 focus group respondents said they were not planning to vote for Biden, but that they now plan to vote for Harris.
- In a six-way race, eight respondents said they would back Harris, one would back Trump, two would back Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and one would not vote.
Zoom out: Trump and his conservative allies have lobbed personal, identity-based attacks against Harris in recent days.
- All 12 respondents disapproved of Trump's recent comments at the Black journalism convention questioning Harris' identity.
- "Why is it it relevant? I mean, even simpler than that, why is it even, why would you say something like that?" said Eric I. "It is just foolish."
The other side: Five of the respondents disapproved of Democrats' use of the word "weird" to describe Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.
- "I don't love it. It's very immature and it's not, I mean, if we want to be appropriate, that is not a word to use," said Lindsay S.
Go deeper: Trump, allies hit Harris and Walz with personal attacks
