These polls showed a clear winner in Tuesday's presidential debate, but is history on their side?

In several polls taken since Tuesday night's presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris seemingly was the winner of her contest with former President Donald Trump.

In polling conducted by CNN, 63% of debate watchers said Harris won, compared to 37% who thought Trump won. Before the debate, respondents were evenly split on who they thought would perform better.

Despite many giving Harris the win, debate watchers are more confident in Trump's ability to handle the economy than Harris' following the debate. The state of the economy is widely seen as one of the most important issues in this year's election.

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When asked who offered a better plan for solving the country's problems, 42% said Harris while 33% said Trump.

Meanwhile, a YouGov poll taken after the debate showed 43% thought Harris won the debate, versus 28% who said Trump, while 30% said unsure.

Whether or not Harris' apparent victory on Tuesday will impact the election remains to be seen. Similar polls in 2016 showed Hillary Clinton being the victor in all three presidential debates, but she ended up losing the election.

In 2012, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney had three debates. The first one indicated that Romney had a dominating win over Obama, according to polling. Surveys then showed Obama winning the final two debates over Romney before easily winning reelection that November.

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Joe Biden also polled well after both presidential debates in 2020, and wound up winning the election. In June 2024, Trump was the overwhelming winner. President Biden's performance in that debate garnered angst among Democrats, and ultimately, the president decided to drop out of the race and endorse Harris.