videocamCBS News Coverage picture_as_pdfView Full Engage® Report

---

Voters’ Perceptions Before and After the Debate—Did They Change?

After the Presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump on Sept 10^th, all eyes were on the results—who won? A team of researchers here at CloudResearch leaned into this question with a tour-de-force study demonstrating the combined power of precision targeting and AI-enabled scaling. Using Engage®, an AI-powered interview and analysis tool, we collected responses from nearly 1,000 voters before and after the debate to get a richly textured picture of how candidate’s debate performance is impacting the election. We interviewed nearly equal numbers of Trump and Harris supporters on top of a sample of over 200 undecideds, and asked questions about how voters saw the candidates, what they expected from the match up, and how they rate various traits such as ‘strength’ or ‘ability to unify the country’ for each. We continued the study after the debate to find out how the candidates delivered. Our initial findings were shared by CBS News. 

Other news outlets also conducted debate polls, and some even used a pre-post design. But those polls had sample sizes closer to 25 people. So how were we at CloudResearch able to conduct an interview with nearly 40 times the respondents in the same time frame? A combination of thoughtful prompt engineering in Engage combined with Connect, our online participant platform, enabled us to conduct rich in-depth interviews at scale, and at a fraction of normal costs and time. Engage was directed to dig deeply into voter viewpoints by dynamically following up to their initial answers, probing the full picture of voters’ viewpoints and expectations. We drew our sample from Connect, where participants can answer qualification questions including their political leanings during this election cycle. Participants in the poll consistently reported a highly positive interview experience, stating that they felt free to tell us their feelings without feeling judged for their views.

---

How Voters Responded to the 2024 Debate Performance

So, what did we find? Voters who came into the debate with a strong opinion of who they supported often found what they were looking for. Some Trump supporters saw an uncompromising man with clearly defined views pushing back hard on a scripted Harris. But many saw something else, an easily baited Trump being led around by Harris. While expectations for Harris were high, most supporters felt she performed admirably and were heartened by her solid showing.  

But it is among the undecided voters that we saw the most activity. For undecided voters who thought Harris won the debate, they were swayed by her composure, eloquence, and focus on substantive issues like the economy and abortion. They appreciated her nuanced views about topics like guns and were impressed that she kept her composure throughout the event. Undecided voters who felt that Trump won the debate focused on his assertive responses and confident demeanor. However, the most dominant theme among nearly two-thirds of Trump supporters was dissatisfaction with Harris and the debate hosts.

---

Comparing Support for Harris and Trump Before and After the Debate 

We also examined six traits associated with the presidency including temperament, intelligence, strong leadership, ability to unify, caring about voters, and will bring the right kind of change. Compared to their feelings before the debate, most voters felt that Harris had demonstrated that she could be a strong leader, with undecideds reporting a whopping 22% increase in perceived strength. Harris also had a large gain in points for how intelligent she is (+15%), and how much she cares about people like them (+11%).

Even Trump supporters reported an 8% increase in intelligence and a 3% increase saying that their views improved about how much she cares about people like them.

In the end, the impact of the debate on the election itself is difficult to measure. Only 1% of voters who aligned with a candidate prior to the debate changed teams (both Democrats and Republicans) with 95% – 97% still supporting their original candidate.

But among undecideds Harris clearly was the winner, with a whopping 22% swayed to support Harris and only 9% moved to support Trump. Will it be enough to sway the outcome? We will find out soon enough!

---

In-Depth Voter Interviews: Insights from AI-Driven Polling

Here we present you with some of the full transcripts from our interviews:

49, Asian-Indian Female from California, Republican:

Part 1- Pre debate

Part 2- Post Debate 

---

33, Asian Male from New York, Democrat: 

Part 1- Pre Debate

Part 2 – Post Debate

---

28, White Male from Texas, Independent

Part 1 – Pre Debate

Part 2 – Post Debate 

---