New WBUR poll finds strong support for Harris, Warren in Mass.

With the November election just weeks away, a new WBUR poll finds Vice President Kamala Harris well ahead of former President Donald Trump with voters in deep blue Massachusetts.

The poll also finds strong support for Sen. Elizabeth Warren in her reelection bid, with 56% of respondents saying they’d vote for her over Republican challenger John Deaton.

The WBUR/CommonWealth Beacon poll of 800 likely voters (topline, crosstabs) was conducted Sept. 12-18, and has a margin of error of 4.1%. It was conducted by The MassINC Polling Group and supported with funding from the Knight Election Hub.

According to the poll, Harris does well with self-identified independents, who broke for her 61% to 22% for Trump.

“She’s clearly resonating with independents here in Massachusetts, and we’ll have to see if that kind of translates over [to other states] as well,” said Rich Parr, senior research director at the MassINC Polling Group.

Harris does have some weak spots, according to the poll. Among younger voters — those under 45 — she has a 46%–51% favorable to unfavorable rating, compared to 65%–32% for older voters.

“The current administration, and that’s including the Vice President, hasn’t shown a big difference in terms of the Trump administration in terms of Gaza,” said 29-year-old Samantha Fletcher of Allston in a follow-up interview with WBUR.

Fletcher said she’s considering not voting for Harris as a way to signal the anger she and her community feel toward US policy in the Israel-Hamas war.

“I think that the Democratic Party needs to know that,” she said.

Broadly speaking, when asked if the country is headed in the right direction, only 31% of respondents said yes. Democrats and independents were among those with a positive view; only 3% of Republicans said the country is moving on the right path. Younger votes were among the most critical of the country’s direction.

On the issues, Massachusetts voters said they are most worried about jobs and the economy (55%), followed closely by reproductive rights and the future of Democracy.

Voter priorities differed widely along party lines. Democrats ranked the future of Democracy and abortion as their top concerns; Republicans pointed to the economy and immigration policy.

The poll will be seen as good news for another prominent Democrat. A majority of respondents indicated they’d support Warren as she seeks a third term in the Senate.

“I feel confident that she’s representing us in the best way possible,” 57-year-old Katie Durso of Arlington said in an interview. She’s one of the 56% of respondents who said they plan to vote for her.

Durso pointed to Warren’s role in setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and taking on the big banks over things like junk fees.

“I trust her on those kinds of issues,” she said.

By contrast, only 35% of likely voters said they supported Republican attorney and cryptocurrency advocate John Deaton. Nearly half had not heard of him.

“He has zero chance of victory, even if he becomes a household name,” said Jerold Duquette, a political science professor at Central Connecticut State University who studies New England politics. Duquette said Warren has a structural advantage with the sheer amount of registered Democrats and Democratic-leaning independent voters.

“The idea that a Republican could get elected is really far-fetched because [of] the impact of another Republican senator” on the two parties’ fight for control of the Senate, he said. “I think it’s too easy to make clear for Massachusetts voters.”

There is a deep partisan divide in whether people believe the national election will be counted fairly and accurately, according to the poll. A majority of Republicans — 65% — indicated they have fears about the vote count, compared with 3% of Democrats.

“I think that we really do have a problem with the authoritativeness of our electoral process,” said 69-year-old Fred Rust of Framingham. Rust is a Republican who plans to vote again for Trump.

While he doesn’t believe the 2020 election was stolen, “it seems like there’s been an awful lot of suspicious things,” he said.

Durso, the Arlington Democrat, blames Republicans for casting doubt on the election process.

“What I’m worried about is the Trump campaign messing with the vote,” she said.

Overall, poll respondents said they felt more confident in Massachusetts’ election system — 79% said they believe the statewide results would be counted accurately.

MassINC’s Parr said the fact people tend to think things are better closer to home is a common dynamic in polling.

“People dislike Congress, but they like their own congressman, or they have concerns with education in the state, but they like their own school,” he said.

That national versus local divide is mirrored in a question about election-related violence. While national polling shows broader concern about major violence following the election, 80% of respondents in the WBUR poll said they didn’t think it would be likely in Massachusetts.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.