According to Harry Enten, ‘It would be historically unprecedented’ for Harris to win given how bad the ‘right track’ numbers are
HISTORY LESSON: A CNN data reporter said it would be “historically unprecedented” for VP Harris to win given how few Americans believe the country is on the “right track,” according to recent polling. https://t.co/zWelVi3D6x pic.twitter.com/opjlsV3uuK
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 5, 2024
CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten noted on Friday that it would be unprecedented for Vice President Kamala Harris, representing the incumbent Democratic Party, to win the presidency considering so few Americans believe the country is on the “right track,” according to recent polling.
Enten pointed to polling showing that only 28% of Americans currently think America is on the right track and noted that this is close to the average rating when the party in power loses major elections.
“You‘re very much in the danger zone when we‘re looking at that right track, wrong direction number, that’s where Democrats are right now,” the data reporter declared.
Enten explained the predicament, noting both the historical average percentage of Americans who believe the country is on the right track when the incumbent party loses an election – 25% – and the average percentage in the same category when that party retains power via an election, which he revealed was 42%.
He spelled out to viewers that the current 28% right track number is much closer to the rate that is present when the incumbent loses.
Pointing to the numbers on screen, Enten said, “Look at that. It‘s just 25%. That looks a heck of a lot like that 28%, right, that currently think the country‘s on the right track.”
He continued, “When the White House party wins – i.e. Kamala Harris’ party, the Democrats – 42% on average think that the country is on the right track. This 25% looks a lot more like this 28%. It doesn‘t look anything like this 42%.”
Summarizing the data, he declared, “This to me is a bad sign for Kamala Harris’ campaign. The bottom line is it looks a lot more like a loser than it does like a winner when it comes to the country being on the right track.”
