Recent polling revealed that Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance has serious ground to make up, as a measly 36% of likely voters surveyed had a favorable view of Vance, while almost half of likely voters had a favorable view of Tim Walz.
Fox News reports:
A survey conducted after the Democratic National Convention in Chicago found that 36% of likely voters have a favorable view of Vance, while 48% approve of Walz. Former President Trump's running mate fared similarly among independents, where 47% said they had an unfavorable view of Vance, but just 36% said they had an unfavorable view of Walz, who is running alongside Vice President Kamala Harris.
The polling comes after Vance has adopted a media blitz strategy of accepting interviews even with outlets seen as hostile to the Trump campaign. Meanwhile, Walz and Harris have faced criticism for their relative lack of media transparency.
USA Today and Suffolk University surveyed 1,000 likely voters from August 25-28 over cellphone and landlines. The poll advertises a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Vance, who has been critical of Harris dodging the press, has spoken to “FOX & Friends,” CNN's John Berman, WBAY2, News 5 Cleveland, NBC News, “Meet the Press,” No Spin News, WALB 10, “CBS Evening News,” “The Brett Winterble Show,” “Jesse Watters Primetime,” “Fox News Sunday,” “The Dan O'Donnell Show,” ABC's “This Week,” CBS' “Face the Nation” and CNN's “State of the Union” over that same time period.
In addition to media engagement, this favorability gap could have something to do with media coverage. While Walz has had his share of media heat — especially around his embellished military service — the way the two candidates were introduced to the public couldn't have been more different.
Walz was portrayed a midwestern average Joe, with pictures of him hunting and coaching football widely circulated immediately following the Harris campaign's announcement of their VP pick. On the other hand, as soon as the Trump campaign announced JD Vance, the media was sharing quotes about him calling single women “cat ladies” that he said were jokes taken out of context.
Multiple pundits have suggested that the Democrats are attempting to run an election more focused on “vibes” than substance, and as far as the vice presidential candidates are concerned, it seems to be working. But the vast majority of voters will cast their votes based on who's leading the ticket, and so far, it doesn't seem like “vibes” are benefitting Harris nearly as much as they've benefitted her running mate.
Many of the campaign's attempts at running on vibes — from her video about preparing collard greens in a bath tub to the staged Dorito hunt at a Sheetz gas station — have backfired, and been criticized by the public.
Isn’t it interesting that Walz’s brother said that Walz is a radical and is unfit to lead. He no doubt knows his brother better than the average voter, yet so many voters will simply ignore his statement.