CNN Flash Poll Claims Harris Debate Victor But Reveals Truth About Who Is Really Ahead

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CNN conducted a flash poll during the presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. According to the poll results, a large majority of debate watchers indicated they thought Vice President Kamala Harris was the victor of Tuesday night’s debate

At the start of the debate, survey participants were split, with 50% saying they expected Harris to win and 50% saying they expected Trump to prevail. However, post-debate a whopping 63% said Harris was the clear victor, compared to 37% for Trump.

When broken down by candidate supporters, 96% of Harris’ supporters said they thought she won, while 69% of Trump supporters said Trump was the winner.

The poll was conducted for CNN via text message by independent research company, SSRS. The sampling was conducted on on September 10, 2024 of 605 registered voters who watched the presidential debate. The reported margin of error was +/-5.3 at the 95% confidence level.

The Underlying Results:

While the Harris campaign may be feeling good about her overall performance, the survey delved deeper into and the results were not so great for the sitting Vice President.

The survey sampled five key issues including the economy, immigration, protecting democracy, being commander-in-chief, and abortion. Let’s take a look at each category.

Economy: Respondents were asked whom they trusted more on the economy, Harris or Trump, the results were dramatic. While Trump led Harris by 16 points prior to the debate, 53%-37%, his lead soared post-debate to 20%, 55%-35%.

“We’ve had a terrible economy because inflation has — which is really known as a country buster. It breaks up countries. We have inflation like very few people have ever seen before. Probably the worst in our nation’s history,” Trump said during the debate. “Everybody knows I’m an open book. Everybody knows what I’m going to do. Cut taxes very substantially. And create a great economy like I did before. We had the greatest economy.

Immigration: President Trump also proved to be more trustworthy than Harris among respondents on immigration, 56% Trump to 33% Harris.

The Biden-Harris administration has seen an overwhelming surge of illegal immigrant encounters at the border since taking office. The US Congressional Homeland Security Committee reported as of April 2024 there have been more than 9.5 million encounters nationwide Since President Biden and Vice President Harris took office.

Harris claimed that if the Senate border security bill had passed the border situation would have improved. However, this was debunked by the Federation for American Immigration Reform putting the problem squarely back on the failure of the administration.

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Protecting Democracy: When asked who would protect democracy, Harris came in ahead of Trump, 49% to 40%.

This is a disputable issue as it is really campaign rhetoric drummed up by the Democrats. It is difficult to know how the respondents would even define the category. Nevertheless, it appears the slogan is working among the respondents as Harris prevailed.

Being Commander-In-Chief: Harris did not fair as well in this category as Trump came out on top, 49% to 43%.

This also is an ambiguous category as it would have different meanings to each respondent. However, Trump has been Commander-In-Chief while Harris has not. One Pennsylvania voter had this to say post-debate: “We’ve had both of the candidates in office before and we’ve gotten to see what they’d do. When facts come to facts, my life was better when Trump was in office.”

Abortion: When asked about the issue of abortion, Harris dominated with 52% to 41%.

Harris did attack Trump on his abortion position during the debate and the moderator appeared to side with her. These statements have since come under fire.

Why It Matters:

At the end of the day, voters do not cast their ballot based on debate performance as much as the candidate’s stance on issues and who they believe will act according to their values.

According to a recent Pew Research report, the number one issue across all voters is the economy. Immigration came in at number six and abortion was eight.

Considering Trump’s ranking on the economy and immigration along with who respondents believe would make a better Commander-In-Chief, it is plausible to think that the takers of this survey would predominantly come down on the side of Trump on election day.

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It will be an interesting ride to the finish of this very contentious election.

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