Harris won presidential debate but didn't gain support: Poll

Voters revealed in poll released Wednesday that Vice President Kamala Harris defeated former President Donald Trump in Tuesday night's debate, but the score did not translate to a boost in support for her.

The survey, commissioned by the New York Post and conducted by Leger, found that half the respondents believed Harris won the debate, while 29% said Trump did. The other 13% said neither candidate won the match-up. Yet Trump notched a one percent increase in support compared to a pre-debate survey last month, while Harris remained the same.

The poll also noted that 60% of the respondents who watched all or part of the ABC debate in Pennsylvania rated the showdown as "good," compared to 42% who gave the first debate between Trump and President Joe Biden the same rating. Nearly one third of respondents (29%) said the debate was "bad," compared to 49% who said the same of the Trump-Biden debate.

The Tuesday night debate also saw a higher viewership than the June debate, with at least 57.5 million viewers tuning into the ABC debate, according to initial reports, while just over 51 million people watched the previous debate. 

The Leger poll was conducted online after the debate on Sept. 10-11, and questioned 1,174 Americans who will vote or probably vote in the upcoming election. The poll has a plus-or-minus 2.72 percentage points margin of error. 

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just the News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.