A.I. poll reveals why most voters think Harris won the debate

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Several polls out Wednesday show most voters think Kamala Harris won the first presidential debate against Donald Trump, but one poll in particular is helping reveal why.

The poll used an artificial intelligence chatbot to gather wide-ranging, conversational interviews with nearly 1,000 U.S. voters before and after the debate. CloudResearch shared the results first with Arizona’s Family.

CloudResearch found that 47% of the voters who entered the debate undecided thought Harris won, compared to 8% for Trump.

Their analysis suggests voters often made up their minds based on which candidate’s temperament and demeanor they liked better, although specific comments about policies and issues also resonated with some.

Companies like CloudResearch are using AI in polling for the first time this election cycle. Backers say it allows for deeper analysis than traditional polls at faster speeds and lower costs.

“The question of why is the most important question,” said Leib Litman, chief research officer at CloudResearch. “If you understand why people thought that Kamala Harris did better, then that could inform your strategy for the next debate.”

Undecided voters who thought Harris won the debate tended to mention her composure, eloquence, and her focus on substantive issues like the economy and abortion. A surprising number – about 10 percent – honed in on a passing comment she made about owning a firearm.

“Tim Walz and I are gun owners,” Harris said late in the debate. “We’re not taking anybody’s guns away.”

That comment resonated with many undecided voters “because people like to see nuanced, well-thought-out positions in complex situations,” Litman said.

Undecided voters who said Trump won the debate liked his assertive responses and confident demeanor, the survey found. However, the most dominant theme among these voters was their dissatisfaction with Harris. It came up in 67 percent of the conversations with these undecided voters, CloudResearch found.

Trump scored points for an answer about job creation through deregulation, but he lost points for a debunked claim that immigrants in one community were eating people’s pets.

“It was mentioned a lot,” Litman said. “In fact, it came up as one of the top themes for undecided voters that were very much turned off by it.”

The question of who won the presidential debate is distinct from the question of whether it swayed undecided voters. Most undecided voters in CloudResearch’s sample - 62 percent - remained undecided after the debate.

However, the plurality of voters who did make up their minds largely chose Harris. She earned 22 percent of previously undecided voters compared to Trump’s 9 percent.

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