Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren are the only two candidates for whom more than 20 percent of voters say they did an excellent job in the first debates. | Justin Sullivan/Getty Images 2020 Elections Voters give Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren top grades in debate

Sens. Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren earned the highest marks among voters who watched last week’s Democratic presidential primary debates, according to a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll.

More voters gave Harris and Warren — two of the six women among the field of 20 debaters — “excellent” marks than any of the other candidates, the poll shows. More than 1 in 4 debate-watchers, 27 percent, said Harris did an “excellent” job, while 23 percent said Warren did an “excellent” job.


The two women are the only candidates for whom more than 20 percent said they did an excellent job. The two men who entered the debate as the polling front-runners, former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, were both rated as “excellent” by 16 percent of debate-watchers. But 23 percent of viewers said Biden did a “poor” job, more than the number of viewers who said Harris (16 percent), Warren (19 percent) and Sanders (20 percent) did a poor job.

Only three other candidates reached a double-digit “excellent” rating: South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg (15 percent), former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro (12 percent) and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker (11 percent). Of the remaining 13 candidates, none earned an “excellent” rating of greater than 5 percent, including former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke (5 percent).

The poll results are consistent with limited horse race polling conducted after the debate that showed Harris surging into the top tier of candidates and Biden slipping. But with more than four weeks until the second debate, it’s still unclear whether the debates will produce durable change in the state of the race — or if any effects will be fleeting.

The POLITICO/Morning Consult poll also included a facial-recognition test of the 20 debaters, conducted in a survey before the debate and again in the new poll. Self-help author Marianne Williamson had the greatest gain in recognition, the poll shows, though nearly a third of debate-watchers, 31 percent, said she did a “poor” job on the stage.

The poll was conducted June 29-July 1, surveying 1,472 registered voters. The margin of error is 3 percentage points.

Morning Consult is a nonpartisan media and technology company that provides data-driven research and insights on politics, policy and business strategy.

More details on the poll and its methodology can be found in these two documents: Toplines | Crosstabs