How Kamala Harris' Approval Ratings Stand Six Months Before Election

Vice President Kamala Harris' approval ratings have slightly risen in recent months as she has hit the campaign trail, polling shows.

Harris has a disapproval rating of 51.3 percent and an approval rating of 38.2 percent as of May 3, according to figures from poll tracker FiveThirtyEight. Her disapproval rating was at 54.9 percent on January 2, meaning it has reduced by around 3.6 percent in the last four months.

The vice president's ratings tend to remain fairly steady, with her disapproval rating consistently fluctuating between around 51 percent and 56 percent since January 2022, according to data from FiveThirtyEight.

By comparison, President Joe Biden has a disapproval rating of 55.8 percent and an approval rating of 38.1 percent as of May 8.

In the first few years of her tenure, Harris, America's first female vice president, struggled to establish herself in what is a necessarily nebulous role.

However, in recent months, the former prosecutor has hit the campaign trail and has been taking on a more visible role ahead of the 2024 election.

The vice president has attacked Trump and Republicans on abortion and reproductive rights, and has described the upcoming election as being about "freedom."

Biden's handling of Israel's war in Gaza has been a particular thorn in his side, with countrywide protests erupting at college campuses, and polling showing that young voters would trust Donald Trump to handle the conflict in the Middle East over him.

Harris, meanwhile, has been clearer in her position, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and decrying the "immense scale of suffering" in the besieged enclave.

And the vice president, who is half Black and half South Asian, has also been undertaking a major Black voter outreach effort as polls show that Biden is leeching support from this demographic.

However, Harris' campaign is still unclear about what voters think about her.

In recent months, her staff had the Democratic National Committee run focus groups in Milwaukee to find out what voters think, CNN reported.

On the positive side, the findings showed that people would rather hear from her than Biden on issues like abortion, guns, student loans and Gaza, CNN reported.

But some criticisms of Harris persist. The focus groups found that several people said Harris rubbed them the wrong way, with some specifically citing her laugh, which has been a frequent target of Republican derision.

Harris addressed these criticisms of her laugh in a recent interview on The Drew Barrymore Show.

"Apparently, some people love to talk about the way I laugh," Harris said. "Well, let me just tell you something: I have my mother's laugh. And I grew up around a bunch of women, in particular, who laughed from the belly."

"And I think it's really important for us to remind each other and our younger ones, don't be confined to other people's perception about what this looks like, and how you should act in order to be," she said.