Vice President Kamala Harris‘ hurricane response is not boding well among swing voters, according to a new social-media analysis provided exclusively to Newsweek.
A study conducted by Impact Social of 40,000 swing voters between October 2 to 9 found that Harris’ hurricane response was the second most popular topic of negative discussion about the Democratic nominee in that weeklong period. The most popular category of negative discussion were posts with a purely anti-Harris sentiment.
Hurricane Helene made landfall on September 26, battering the southeast in what was the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Maria in 2017.
The analysis found that the negative conversation about Harris, which makes up 34 percent of all posts about her, 12 percent was related to her handling of Helene. Comparatively, former President Donald Trump‘s response to the hurricanes accounted for 7 percent of the negative discussion about him. Negative posts about Trump made up 29 percent of al sentiments expressed about him online.
Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris speaks after being briefed on Hurricane Helene recovery operations at the Charlotte Air National Guard Base on October 5, 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Harris’ response to the hurricane has spurred negative online discussions about the vice president.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
“Whipped up by the right, independents accused the VP of a lack of leadership, of being more interested in electioneering and fundraising than the good people of North Carolina et al.,” the firm said in a memo attached to the analysis results.
“Harris is further damaged by false rumors, spread by Trump and repeated by swing voters, which suggests that FEMA funds are being prioritized for illegal immigrants over victims of the storm.”
Impact Social analysts found that swing voters were expressing their anger over Harris’ hurricane response through posts like, “@VP Why aren’t you taking care of the people of North Carolina? Do you even know we have another Hurricane getting ready to hit Florida.? You are An idiot” and “@VP Kamala Harris has failed the Southeast and is now going on a late night show tour while victims are without help. Shame on Kamala!”
Impact Social’s swing-voter sentiment tracker suggests Kamala Harris is trailing Joe Biden by double digits, compared to the same time four years ago.
Impact Social
Impact Social said that the fallout from her hurricane response has knocked Harris’ sentiment score down another 3 points, marking her fourth drop in sentiment over the last month. She is also 12 points worse off where Biden was at this point in 2020, while Trump is around the same position as he was four years ago.
Although Harris is seeing more negative discussion, conversation volume about Trump remains three times greater.
Researchers also warned that Harris could suffer from more negative discussions if she doesn’t take a different approach to Hurricane Milton, which made landfall Wednesday night in Florida.
The toll of that storm appears far smaller, both in terms of lives lost and damage, than Helene.
“As any leader knows, a natural disaster is also an opportunity, chance to prove your mettle in the face of adversity. Harris has given up one such moment,” the memo read. “Storm Milton provides another, failure to seize it will cast further doubt among some swing voters as to her suitability for office.”
Impact Social determined the swing voters analyzed in this study by finding users who expressed or used language that put them in one of these 10 categories of voter: disillusioned Trump voters, undecided, Harris skeptics, never-Trumpers/Centrists, independents, Obama-Trump voters, abstainers, Bernie/far-left supporters, former Democrats and third-party voters.
Click here for a copy of Impact Social’s full report.
