MAY HARVARD CAPS / HARRIS POLL: TRUMP NOW BEATS BIDEN BY 7 POINTS IN 2024 PRESIDENTIAL MATCHUP

HALF OF VOTERS HAVE HEARD OF DURHAM REPORT ON FBI'S TRUMP INVESTIGATION BUT SEEM CONFUSED ABOUT ITS CONTENTS

54% OF VOTERS SUPPORT REPEAL OF COVID-ERA IMMIGRATION REGULATION TITLE 42

NEW YORK and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 19, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Stagwell (NASDAQ: STGW) today released the results of the May Harvard CAPS / Harris Poll, a monthly collaboration between the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard (CAPS) and the Harris Poll and HarrisX. 

President Joe Biden's approval rating remains at 43% after he announced his reelection campaign in late April. With default possibly just weeks away, 57% of voters, up 2 points from last month, want Democrats to give in on their debt ceiling position. The poll also covers public opinion on crime and China. Download key results here.

"Stability continues to be the theme of public opinion this month," said Mark Penn, Co-Director of the Harvard-CAPS Harris Poll and Stagwell Chairman and CEO. "Even the comprehensive Durham report could not break through the partisanship. Although we seem to be getting ever closer to a Biden-Trump rematch, there is more than enough time for major contenders to affect the race by officially jumping in."

TRUMP CONTINUES TO STRENGTHEN AFTER CNN TOWN HALL

• Trump now beats Biden in a 2024 general election by 7 points, 47-40.
• Trump stretched his lead in a GOP primary to 58% and Biden stretched his lead in a Democratic primary to 41%.

VOTERS SEEM CONFUSED BY DURHAM REPORT ON FBI'S TRUMP INVESTIGATION

• Half of voters, evenly split across parties, have heard of the Durham report on the FBI's Trump-Russia probe.
• But Americans are confused about the Durham report's conclusion: half of voters, including 72% of Democrats, believed the report said the FBI's Trump investigation was well-founded, even though it said the opposite.
• 52% of voters believe the Durham report was a fair examination, although 57% of Democrats said it was fair and 54% of Republicans said it was biased.
• 70% of Democrats still believe Trump worked in concert with Russia to win the presidency and 71% believe the Steele dossier was a true story.

MAJORITY OF VOTERS ACROSS ALL PARTIES WANT STRICTER IMMIGRATION POLICIES

• 71% of voters, split evenly across the parties, have heard of the repeal of Title 42, a COVID-era immigration regulation that allowed the U.S. government to send those who attempted to cross the southern border illegally to Mexico to wait for a court date.
• 54% of voters – including 67% of Democrats and 46% of Republicans – support the repeal of Title 42.
• 53% of voters now think the Biden administration is just trying to enforce immigration laws more humanely, rather than creating an open border (which a majority of voters thought in December).
• But only 38% of voters approve of Biden's handling of immigration, down 2 points from last month.

VOTERS CONTINUE TO WANT DEBT CEILING NEGOTIATIONS

• 35% of voters, up 6 points from last month, now think Biden has signaled willingness to curb spending in the next year.
• Voters continue to want Democrats to cave and negotiate on the debt ceiling to prevent a default: 57% say so, up 2 points from last month.
• As default looms, 70% of voters, up 6 points from last month, now think default would be a huge issue.

The May Harvard CAPS / Harris Poll survey was conducted online within the United States from May 17-18, 2023, among 2,004 registered voters by The Harris Poll and HarrisX. Follow the Harvard CAPS Harris Poll podcast at https://www.markpennpolls.com/ or on iHeart Radio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other podcast platforms. 

About The Harris Poll & HarrisX

The Harris Poll is a global consulting and market research firm that strives to reveal the authentic values of modern society to inspire leaders to create a better tomorrow. It works with clients in three primary areas: building twenty-first-century corporate reputation, crafting brand strategy and performance tracking, and earning organic media through public relations research. One of the longest-running surveys in the U.S., The Harris Poll has tracked public opinion, motivations, and social sentiment since 1963, and is now part of Stagwell, the challenger holding company built to transform marketing.

HarrisX is a technology-driven market research and data analytics company that conducts multi-method research in the U.S. and over 40 countries around the world on behalf of Fortune 100 companies, public policy institutions, global leaders, NGOs and philanthropic organizations. HarrisX was the most accurate pollster of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

About the Harvard Center for American Political Studies
The Center for American Political Studies (CAPS) is committed to and fosters the interdisciplinary study of U.S. politics. Governed by a group of political scientists, sociologists, historians, and economists within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, CAPS drives discussion, research, public outreach, and pedagogy about all aspects of U.S. politics. CAPS encourages cutting-edge research using a variety of methodologies, including historical analysis, social surveys, and formal mathematical modeling, and it often cooperates with other Harvard centers to support research training and encourage cross-national research about the United States in comparative and global contexts. More information at https://caps.gov.harvard.edu/.

CONTACT: 
Sarah Arvizo
[email protected]

SOURCE Stagwell Inc.