Vice President Kamala Harris' favorability rating has jumped by 8 percentage points after she became a candidate for the presidency when President Joe Biden bowed out of the race, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday.
Harris, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee, now has a favorability rating of 43%, up from 35% just a week ago before Biden dropped out last Sunday and endorsed her, reported ABC News.
Her unfavorability rating has also improved. It is now at 42%, compared to 46% saying they viewed her unfavorably last week, before Biden's move.
Most major Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, have endorsed Harris and she has squared away enough delegate commitments to secure the nomination.
Harris' favorability rating also jumped by several points among independents, who could be crucial in this fall's presidential election.
According to the new poll, 44% said they now have a favorable view of her, climbing from just 28% a week ago.
Her unfavorability rating also shifted, from 47% last week to 40% this week.
Meanwhile, a slight majority in the poll overall, at 52%, said Harris should be the Democratic nominee, including 86% of Democrats, 51% of independents, and just 20% of Republicans.
The poll also showed that Harris has the edge over Republican nominee Donald Trump when it comes to enthusiasm people have for them as nominees, with 48% of Americans saying they would feel enthusiastic about Harris being named, compared to 39% who are enthusiastic about Trump as the nominee.
The survey further revealed Trump's favorability rating dropped slightly, from 40% in the week after the Republican National Convention and after someone tried to assassinate him on July 13, to 36% in the recent poll.
His favorability rating also dropped among independents, from 35% last week to 27% this week.
The poll was conducted on July 26-27 with a random national sample of 1,200 adults, with the oversamples of Black and Hispanic respondents weighted to their correct proportions in the general population. The results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.0 points.