A quick CNN poll of registered voters who watched Tuesday’s presidential debate found that vice president and Democratic White House nominee, Kamala Harris has far surpassed Donald Trump.
A 63% of 605 people surveyed by SMS across the country felt that Harris performed better in the debate in Philadelphia, compared to 37% who thought Trump was the better of the two.
Before the debate, the same voters were evenly split on which candidate would do better, CNN noted in presenting the poll results.
96% of Harris supporters who attended the debate said the vice president did a better job than the former president, while among Trump supporters, the percentage of those who see him as the winner is 69%.
The results of the rapid survey mark a shift from the reaction to the June presidential debate, when registered voters who watched the verbal confrontation between Trump and President Joe Biden, then the Democratic nominee in the Nov. 5 election, viewed the former president as outperforming his rival (67% to 33%).
CNN said the survey results reflect the views of the debate only among those who watched the debate and are not representative of the views of the general voting public.
Debate watchers in the survey were six points more likely to be aligned with Republicans than Democrats, translating to an audience that was about four percentage points more Republican than all registered voters nationally.
According to CNN, voters who watched the debate also walked away with best harris reviews compared to their pre-debate impressions, while few have changed their overall opinion of Trump.
45% of respondents said they viewed Harris favorably and 44% unfavorably, an improvement from before the debate, when she was viewed positively by only 39%.
Meanwhile, debate watchers’ opinions of Trump changed little: 39% rated him favorably and 51% unfavorably after the debate, similar percentages to those of the same voters before he took the stage.
