Do Americans think Trump or Harris rallies draw bigger crowds? What a new poll found
Slightly more Americans believe former President Donald Trump draws larger crowds than Vice President Kamala Harris, according to a new poll. It comes days after the candidates exchanged barbs over their crowd sizes.
In an Aug. 14 YouGov poll, 38% of respondents said they believe Trump typically attracts bigger crowds at campaign rallies, while 32% said they believe Harris does.
Eleven percent of respondents said they think both have equal crowd sizes, and 18% said they didn’t know, according to the poll, which sampled 5,850 U.S. adults.
When broken down by partisan affiliation, Republicans showed stronger support for Trump than Democrats did for Harris.
Seventy-nine percent of GOP respondents said they thought Trump garnered bigger crowds, while 65% of Democrats said they thought Harris did.
By a narrow margin, independents were more likely to say they believed Trump draws bigger crowds, 32% versus 26%.
The poll also asked respondents if they would be interested in attending rallies for Trump or Harris in their local area.
Forty-one percent of respondents said they would be very or somewhat interested in going to a Harris rally, while 37% said the same for a Trump rally — marking a 4-point difference in Harris’ favor.
The difference was partly driven by independents. Thirty-two percent said they would be interested in going to a Harris rally, while 27% said they’d be interested in attending a Trump rally.
Additionally, 53% of respondents said they would not be interested in attending a Harris rally, while slightly more, 58%, said they wouldn’t be interested in going to a Trump rally.
The poll comes several days after Trump accused Harris, without evidence, of using artificial intelligence to fake a photo showing a large crowd at one of her campaign events next to an airplane.
“Has anyone noticed that Kamala CHEATED at the airport?” the former president wrote in an Aug. 11 post on Truth Social. “There was nobody at the plane, and she ‘A.I.’d’ it, and showed a massive ‘crowd’ of so-called followers, BUT THEY DIDN’T EXIST!”
A digital forensics expert analyzed the photo and found no indication it had been manipulated, according to the Associated Press.
Harris’ campaign quickly responded to Trump in a post on X, writing, “This is an actual photo of a 15,000-person crowd for Harris-Walz in Michigan.”
“Trump,” the post added, “has still not campaigned in a swing state in over a week... Low energy?”
This story was originally published August 14, 2024 at 2:41 PM with the headline "Do Americans think Trump or Harris rallies draw bigger crowds? What a new poll found."