Of Major Parties’ Contenders for POTUS, Kennedy Most Popular, Biden Most Unpopular, Harvard-Harris Poll Shows

A survey the Harris Poll conducted last week for the Ctr. for American Political Studies at Harvard Univ. concluded registered voters nationwide (of whom 2,068 were sampled) have a more favorable opinion of Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Esq.—and a more unfavorable opinion of incumbent Joe Biden—than of anyone else who seeks the nomination of a major party for chief executive of the United States.

When the unfavorability rating for each candidate is subtracted from his/her favorability rating, the largest positive difference belongs to Kennedy, and the largest negative difference belongs to Biden.

            % favorable

            ↓  % unfavorable

            ↓  ↓  net in pct. pts.

RFK Jr.

(Gage Skidmore)

   Kennedy: 47/26/+21
 Ramaswamy: 34/18/+16

     Scott: 33/22/+10*
     Haley: 33/28/ +5
  DeSantis: 40/37/ +3
    Burgum: 14/17/ –3
     Trump: 45/49/ –4
Hutchinson: 18/23/ –5
Williamson: 18/23/ –5

     Pence: 37/44/ –7
  Christie: 27/39/–11*

     Biden: 39/53/–14   *apparent discrepancy due to rounding

Of the 23 demographics broken down in the cross-tabulations, Kennedy has net favorability of 12 to 34 percentage points in each, and Biden has net unfavorability of four to 74 points in 17.

                    Kennedy    Biden

          females: 43/22/+21 38/53/–15
            males: 50/29/+21 40/54/–14

           blacks: 48/24/+24 57/33/+24

          Latinos: 48/18/+30 39/48/ –9 

  other nonwhites: 41/29/+12 24/58/–34

           whites: 47/27/+20 36/59/–23

        Democrats: 51/26/+25 76/19/+57
     independents: 43/26/+17 29/61/–32
      Republicans: 46/26/+20 10/84/–74

 Biden
(Adam Schultz / WH)

       “liberals”: 48/32/+16 70/24/+46
      “moderates”: 44/21/+23 43/47/ –4
  “conservatives”: 49/26/+23 15/79/–64

      income<$75K: 46/23/+23 38/54/–16
            >$75K: 48/29/+19 41/53/–12

        urbanites: 54/20/+34 55/38/+17
     suburbanites: 43/30/+13 35/58/–23
        ruralists: 44/24/+20 27/65/–38

    ages 18 to 34: 46/18/+28 38/47/ –9
         35 to 49: 52/21/+31 47/46/ +1
         50 to 64: 44/30/+14 36/61/−25
          65 & up: 46/34/+12 37/59/−22

college graduates: 46/31/+15 50/46/ +4

           others: 47/23/+24 34/57/−23

No published poll has tested how Kennedy—were he the Democratic standard-bearer—would fare nationwide in the general election.  However, the aforementioned survey found Biden would lose the popular vote to former president Donald Trump by five pts. and to Gov. Ronald DeSantis of Fla. by one.

Democrats nevertheless favor Biden over Kennedy by 62% to 16%.

Although independents are not broken down by party in whose primary—if any—they intend to participate, those voters prefer the environmental lawyer as opposed to the former senator from Del. by 31% to 20%.