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Americans are worried and disappointed about the presidential campaign, AP-NORC poll finds
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Americans are worried and disappointed about the presidential campaign, AP-NORC poll finds

Most Americans are feeling many emotions leading up to Election Day, but excitement is not one of them.

WASHINGTON — Most Americans are feeling many emotions heading into Election Day, but excitement is not one of them.

A new survey AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research Nearly 7 in 10 Americans say they are worried or disappointed about the 2024 presidential campaign, and a similar proportion say they are interested, according to the survey.

Only a third say they feel excited.

A broad sense of uncertainty about the 2024 presidential contest prevails in the final week of the campaign. The race is competitive nationally and in key states, according to recent polls; Neither Democrat Kamala Harris nor Republican Donald Trump show a measurable advantage. At the same time, the candidates presented diametrically opposed closing arguments; Harris, Trump Obsessed with revenge and his own personal needsTrump referred to Harris at a rally Sunday night as “a train wreck who destroys everything in her path.”

Even though the election took place in the middle of a deadly pandemic, some groups are more worried than they were four years ago. An AP-NORC poll in 2020 found that nearly two-thirds of Americans were worried about the election, which is not statistically significant from the new result. But the anxiety is slightly higher for partisans. Nearly 8 in 10 Democrats say being anxious describes how they feel right now; This rate was around three quarters in the last election. Nearly two-thirds of Republicans are concerned; This is a moderate increase from around 6 in 10 in 2020.

Independents, by contrast, showed no significant change and are also less worried than Democrats or Republicans. About half say they are worried, similar to the 2020 finding.

Other emotions, including excitement, have become more intense than in past election periods. Nearly a third of Americans report feeling excited about the 2024 campaign, up from nearly a quarter in 2016. But a majority of Americans say they’re not excited about this year’s race.

But one thing has remained fairly constant: Americans’ level of disappointment with the campaign. Nearly 7 in 10 Americans say disappointment describes their emotional state similarly to 2020.

But there is a light on the horizon for Americans; The election will be over soon.

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The survey of 1,233 adults was conducted October 24-29, 2024, using a sample from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.6 percentage points.