After finally choosing a running mate for the 2024 election in November, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is facing the stark reality that his selected vice-presidential pick has some of the worst approval ratings of any candidate for the role.
Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio was chosen by Trump last month, an announcement he made during the recent Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The candidate has favor with younger voters—presumably in part because he is more than a decade younger than all other candidates so far—but apparently has not made a very good impression among overall voters.
Vance, in his defense, has been slapped with a slew of negative connotations for things he has said in the past—from childless women commentary to strong opposition to abortion—leading Democrats to paint him and the entire Republican party as “weird.”
A recent poll from this week showed Vance performing at minus 15, marking an all-time low for his approval ratings. The candidate polled at a negative six-point rating last week, just after the Republican National Convention. Since then, his disapproval rating has more than doubled.
When asked about how much this will impact the overall view of the Trump and Vance ticket, a source connected to the campaign noted that it is “hard to say.” The source added that it remains to be seen how much the vice-presidential candidate is “the driver” of what leads an individual to vote “for the principal” on the ticket. Traditionally, running mates have not been known to sway voters away from their leading candidate.
According to Harry Enten, a senior data journalist for CNN who used to work as an analyst for the polling site FiveThirtyEight, Vance is “the worst vice-presidential pick” to be chosen in at least three decades. The reporter specifically declared that Vance is the worst candidate for the position since George McGovern selected Thomas Eagleton as a running mate in 1972.
As Enten pointed out, Eagleton “got replaced,” adding that Vance is “historically unpopular” at rates higher than other vice-presidential nominees who “went on to infamy.”
