Polls show no post-debate bounce for Kamala Harris

Even though voters in the 67-million-person audience initially thought Harris won the debate, post-debate analysis showed that many believed that ABC News’ moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis were biased against Trump.

Since the debate, Politico reported that Democrats only grew their support by around one point nationally, this is despite two-thirds of voters saying that she appeared to win the debate.

Harris is not taking the lead in battleground states either, where polling continues to show the two candidates evenly matched. Harris has fared best in NBC News and CBS News polls released on Sunday that give her a small single digit lead. Polling averages pegged Harris at between 1.1 and 2.5 points ahead on Sept. 10 and then at 2.2 and 3 points after the debate, Politico noted.

Polling in battleground states has been intense but the results show the two candidates are within the margin of error of each other. Harris only leads by one point or more in two battleground states. Pollsters have always tended to undervalue Trump as a candidate as his polling has sometimes been significantly lower than the electoral results. Additionally, Harris has been underperforming both Biden and Hillary Clinton in their respective runs against Trump.

Harris’ failure to surge may have been stunted by post-debate coverage, where many said that the debate appeared to be three of them against Trump.

Mark Penn, a former top adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton, said that ABC needs to find out why the 2024 presidential debate appeared to be skewed in favor of the Democratic presidential candidate and demanded an investigation. Moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis "fact-checked" many of Trump’s accusations and policy statements but questioned none of Harris’ comments. Ratings for Muir’s World News Tonight on ABC plummeted amid discussion that he had favored Harris over Trump with fact checking and questions.