Americans Want More Harris, Less Trump Coverage: Poll

In the build up to the 2024 presidential election, the airwaves are abuzz with reporting on both candidates. A new poll suggests that Americans may be keen for a shift in the coverage, however.

A survey released Wednesday by data analytics and market research firm YouGov found that Americans want to see more coverage of Vice President Kamala Harris, and less of former President Donald Trump.

According to YouGov’s report, 36 percent of U.S. adult citizens said they would prefer to see and hear more of Harris in the news, while just 22 percent said the same of Trump.

Meanwhile, almost half (46 percent) of respondents said they wanted to hear or see less of Trump in the news, compared to 30 percent who wanted less of Harris.

Some 24 percent were broadly happy with the election coverage for both candidates.

“Everyone knows who Donald Trump is. Despite being VP for nearly four years, Americans are just getting acquainted with Kamala Harris,” Thomas Gift, associate professor in political science at University College London, told Newsweek.

“Her vagueness on policy and flip-flops on topics like immigration, Medicare for All, and fracking mean that voters want to know more about what kind of president she’d be.”

Newsweek has contacted the Trump and Harris campaigns for comment via email outside of standard working hours.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the figures looked very different when broken down into voter groups.

Respondents who identified themselves as Democrat voters overwhelmingly wanted to see and hear less of Trump – 81 percent said so. Among Republican voters, 60 percent desired less of Harris.

With independent voters, 25 percent wanted more of Harris, and 28 percent less. On the other hand, 16 percent wanted to hear and see more of Trump, while 38 percent wanted less.

On Wednesday, Trump appeared at a town hall event with Fox News host Sean Hannity, criticizing Harris and President Joe Biden while touting his own campaign, telling voters they “have to” vote for him.

Last week, Harris gave her first major television interview since replacing Biden in the race for the White House, alongside her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

That came after criticism from many Republican figures over her lack of interviews since Biden ended his reelection bid.

Trump and Harris are scheduled to go head-to-head in a debate next week.

According to polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight, Harris was leading Trump 47 percent to 43.9 percent, as of September 4.

However, statistician Nate Silver’s (founder of FiveThirtyEight) own latest election forecast put Trump’s chances of winning at 58.2 percent as of Wednesday.

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