Roughly 8 in 10 registered voters who watched the debate (81%) say it had no effect on their choice for president, according to a poll of debate watchers conducted. Another 14% said that it made them reconsider but didn’t change their mind, while 5% said it changed their minds about whom to vote for.
Roughly equal shares of Joe Biden and Donald Trump supporters said the debate had changed their mind.
Debate watchers’ views of Biden did dip slightly following the debate: Just 31% viewed him favorably, compared with 37% in a survey of the same voters taken prior to the debate. By contrast, 43% of debate watchers viewed Trump favorably, similar to the 40% with positive views of him prior to Thursday’s event.
And 48% of debate watchers say Trump better addressed concerns about his ability to handle the presidency, with 23% saying Biden did a better job and 22% that neither candidate did. Another 7% thought both candidates did an equally good job allaying concerns.
The poll’s results reflect opinions of the debate only among those voters who tuned in and aren’t representative of the views of the full voting public – in their demographics, their political preferences or the level of attention they pay to politics. Debate watchers in the poll were 5 points likelier to be Republican-aligned than Democratic-aligned, making for an audience that was slightly more GOP-leaning than all registered voters nationally.
Among those debate watchers, 48% say they’d only consider voting for Trump, 40% that they’d only consider voting for Biden, 2% that they’re considering both candidates, and 11% that they aren’t considering voting for either.
