When asked to encapsulate Kamala Harris’s debate performance in a single word, voters frequently chose “hopeful,” reflecting a positive sentiment towards her presence on Tuesday night.
This perception suggests that the Vice President exceeded expectations in her debate against former President Donald Trump, particularly in capturing the emotional tone of the evening.
In contrast, a word cloud of responses about Trump’s performance highlighted “annoyed” as the prevailing sentiment.
These insights are drawn from a survey conducted online by J.L. Partners, which included 800 independent voters on the night of the debate.
The survey results showed that 49 percent of participants believed Harris delivered the stronger performance, especially as Trump seemed visibly unsettled by her.
J.L. Partners polled 800 independent voters who watched Tuesday’s debate. Voters said Kamala Harris made them feel hopeful and confident as well as annoyed
Meanwhile, 43 percent of respondents felt that Trump emerged victorious from the debate.
But respondents were also asked a series of more detailed questions to get a sense of each candidates’ strongest moments, the one word that summed up their overall performance, and a brief description of how they made viewers’ feel.
For Harris, the most prominent terms for how viewers felt were ‘hopeful’, ‘confident,’ and ‘strong,’ spoiled only by the word ‘annoyed’ also appearing prominently.
It suggests her promise to bring back joy to campaigning may be resonating with voters.
For Trump, ‘confident’ appeared prominently, but ‘angry,’ ‘scared,’ ‘worried,’ and ‘confused’ were all listed in his vibe cloud.
‘Kamala Harris won the battle of the vibes last night: Voters felt hopeful when they listened to her, compared to annoyed for Trump,’ said James Johnson, cofounder of J.L. Partners.
‘That was pretty much the Harris campaign’s strategic aim: Project a positive image of their candidate who reflects change, and bait Trump into coming off as abrasive as possible.
‘Nonetheless, a good chunk of independents still felt Trump was confident and strong—just not as much as they did Harris.
‘In a razor’s edge race, that difference matters.’
The 800 independent voters also described what they thought each candidates’ best moment
The two candidates met for the first time in the ABC News debate in Philadelphia. They spent more than an hour and a half tussling over abortion, the economy and foreign policy.
Harris came with a plan to knock Trump off his stride and appeared to succeed. She generated the most viral moment of the night when she ridiculed Trump’s rallies, saying that people left early out of ‘exhaustion and boredom.’
He defended what he called the ‘most incredible rallies in the history of politics’ before pivoting to repeat an extraordinary online rumor about migrants eating pets.
‘Talk about extreme,’ Harris said, laughing.
The result was that Trump’s plan to define his opponent in viewers’ minds was sidelined for chunks of time as he defended himself or launched personal attacks.
Trump again refused to acknowledge his 2020 election defeat and at times raised his voice as he launched personal attacks at Harris.
Both candidates can take some comfort from other parts of the night, however.
Our panel of independent voters declared Vice President Kamala Harris to have performed best on the night, and saw her as more presidential than Donald Trump
Viewers thought Trump won on the key issues of the economy and the border
Trump did well on some of the biggest issues that will decide the 2024 election.
When viewers were asked to sum up his best moment in a word, the results were: Border, economy, policy, and immigration.
Harris’s word cloud was domination by the single word ‘abortion,’ after she offered a clear and comprehensive policy position on an issue where Trump is clearly struggling to reconcile his personal views with pressure from religious conservatives who are crucial to his coalition.
The two candidates are locked in a tight race.
Harris had seen her stock, and her fundraising, rise after her surprise entry to the race in July. However, there are signs that her honeymoon is ending and the polls are tightening again.
Our DailyMail.com/J.L. Partners election model gives Trump a 55 percent of victory.
