Half of registered voters believe President-elect Donald Trump has a “strong mandate” to govern after his historic comeback victory, the latest Harvard-Harris survey found.
The survey asked respondents, “Do you think president-elect Trump received a strong mandate to govern, a weak mandate, or no mandate at all?”
Exactly half, 50 percent, said Trump has a “strong mandate.” Another 21 percent said he has a “weak mandate,” and 29 percent said he has “no mandate at all.”
Those who believe Trump has a “strong” mandate include 80 percent of Republicans, 41 percent of independents, and 28 percent of Democrats. Another 34 percent of Democrats said Trump has a “weak mandate,” and 9 percent of Republicans and 19 percent of independents agree.
A plurality of Democrats, 38 percent, deny that Trump has any mandate at all. Forty percent of independents agree and 11 percent of Republicans do as well.
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Many Republicans have touted the MAGA mandate following Trump’s historic victory where he swept all seven swing states, garnered 312 electoral votes, and even won the national popular vote.
“And the fact that we won the popular vote, I think that probably is the single biggest accomplishment of the night: the fact that Donald J. Trump not only won all seven battleground states, but carried the popular vote,” Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman Michael Whatley said.
“The mandate is overwhelming,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s incoming press secretary, said following Trump’s victory.
“You look at the map of red versus blue. I mean, essentially the entire country went red, except for, of course, the coastal elites in California,” she continued. “So there is a mandate for Donald Trump to go into the White House on day one and to start implementing the policies that he campaigned on.”
“That’s what the American people elected him to do, and not only will he have the executive power to do it, he’s also going to have the legislative power on Capitol Hill,” Leavitt added. Other Republicans have expressed similar sentiments.
Democrat Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), however, disagrees, stating during a press conference on Tuesday that he sees no mandate for Republicans.
“Despite the claims of some of my Republican colleagues who have spent a lot of time over the last two weeks talking about some big, massive mandate, I’m looking for it,” he said during the press conference.
“That doesn’t mean that we don’t have to make adjustments to make sure that we can get beyond fighting House Republicans with a national wave on top of us … ,” he continued, doubting the narrative that the GOP has a mandate to implement an agenda moving the country further to the right.
“But the question about this notion of some mandate to make massive far-right extreme policy changes — it doesn’t exist,” Jeffries added. “It doesn’t exist.”
The poll was “conducted on November 13-14, 2024, among 1,732 registered voters by The Harris Poll and HarrisX.”