'The Voters Don't Like Her': Arizona Focus Groups Offer 'Brutal' Assessments of Kamala Harris

Voter focus groups in Arizona recently evaluated Kamala Harris' popularity for the upcoming election, and the results weren't pretty for the vice president. Following Harris' speech in Arizona on April 12, the political group "Republican Voters Against Trump" showcased videos of interviews from three distinct focus groups: former Trump 2016 voters who chose Biden in 2020, Black voters disappointed with Biden, and "California Democrats."

Political director for RVAT Gunner Ramer summarized the analysis of Harris, noting "Swing voters don’t like her." The LA Times depicted the voter's assessments as "brutal," writing that the focus group's reflections included:

If she is helping Biden, you don’t see it.
She rubs me the wrong way.
She was picked because she is a demographic.
The big things she had, she failed.

On Friday, Harris delivered a speech in Tucson, just three days after the state's supreme court allowed the enforcement of an 1864 abortion law. During her speech, Harris laid out the Democrats' argument against former President Donald Trump, blaming him for the court's ruling, and saying,

Just like he did in Arizona, he basically wants to take America back to the 1800s.

But, not every voter surveyed realized that Harris had visited the state just days prior, the report says:

Several voters said in interviews in Phoenix on Monday that they were not aware Harris was in their state just a few days ago, underscoring the challenge of getting attention as a vice president in an era of information overload.

Tracey Sayles, a 52-year-old Black Democrat said, "If she is coming for us, she doesn’t show it." Sayles, who previously voted for Democrats Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, now expresses a 50-50 stance for the upcoming election. Despite finding Trump "vulgar," she feels uncertain due to concerns about Biden's health, saying that he "looks like he's ill." Sayles mentioned that she would have made the effort to see Harris in Tucson if she had known about the visit, adding that she felt that the vice president has been in hiding.

In the group of Black voters reporting to be disappointed by Biden the Times report says,

...none raised their hand in support of Harris, with one participant calling her 'the bad news bear.'

Regarding the cohort of California Democrats, the report states,

A focus group of California Democrats, while they liked Harris, had to be prompted to discuss her and said she needed more influence and exposure.

Jeff Garland, a retired military member who voted for Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020, expressed skepticism about Harris, after admitting that he hasn't seen much of her, either.

Garland said,

But from what I have seen of her, she doesn’t look like someone I want running my country.

He indicated that he planned to abstain from voting in 2024.

Danielle Alvarez, a senior advisor to the Trump campaign, suggested that Harris is irrelevant on the road to the White House, saying,

Political reality is that Biden’s under water and he is a failed president. She is certainly probably equal to him in those failures, but he is the target.

The Harris campaign communications director, Brian Fallon, says that Harris is,

...uniquely positioned to mobilize critical groups across the Biden-Harris coalition, including both progressives and independents.

But, from the reports on these focus groups, it seems that after four years in the Biden Administration, Harris oscillates between being unfamiliar with swing and left-leaning voter demographics to being flat-out undesirable.

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