Polls: How Americans view JD Vance, Tim Walz ahead of VP debate
WASHINGTON - New polling shows that Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate running with Donald Trump, is less popular among voters than Kamala Harris' pick, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, going into the 2024 election.
Negative feelings about Vance are considerably more widespread than positive opinions, and by contrast, Walz is better liked, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Separately, 42% of registered voters of a recent CNN poll conducted by SSRS had an unfavorable opinion of Vance, compared to 32% of Walz.
Vance and Walz are set to appear before a huge audience on Oct. 1 for the vice-presidential debate.
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What polls say about Vance, Walz
Sen. JD Vance and Gov. Tim Walz are pictured in file images.
About half of registered voters in the AP-NORC poll have a somewhat or very unfavorable view of Vance, up from about 4 in 10 in late July. Around one-quarter have a somewhat or very favorable view of him, and a similar share don’t know enough to say.
For Walz, about 3 in 10 voters have a negative view of the Democrat, while about 4 in 10 have a positive opinion and about 3 in 10 don’t know enough to say, according to the AP-NORC poll.
The CNN/SSRS poll found that 30% have a favorable opinion about Vance, slightly up from 28% in late July. Some 36% of voters in that poll have a favorable opinion of Walz, who was tapped as Harris’ running mate in early August.
Meanwhile, about 7 in 10 Democratic voters have a positive opinion of Walz, compared to about 6 in 10 Republican voters who have a favorable view of Vance, the poll found.
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How the VP candidates poll with women, Black voters
Democratic candidates tend to receive more support from women, while Republicans perform better among men. That gap is apparent in Trump and Harris' favorability numbers — but Walz is better liked than Vance among both men and women, according to the AP-NORC poll.
About 4 in 10 male and female voters have a positive view of Walz, while about 3 in 10 men and about one-quarter of women have a positive view of Vance.
Walz also has a popularity advantage over Vance among voters over the age of 60, the AP-NORC poll found. Half of voters in this group view Walz somewhat or very favorably, while about 3 in 10 have a similar opinion of Vance.
Despite his strength over Vance in some areas, there are also some key Democratic groups where Walz still has work to do, the AP noted.
About three-quarters of Black adults have a favorable view of Harris, while roughly half say the same about Walz. She is also viewed more positively by women; about 3 in 10 women don't know enough about Walz to have an opinion, the AP-NORC poll found.
Neither VP candidate outshines Harris or Trump
In general, neither of the vice-presidential candidates outshine Harris or Trump among major demographic groups in polling. They remain less well-known than the presidential nominees, even among groups that are traditionally part of each party's base, the AP noted.
About one-quarter of White voters without a college degree don't know enough to say about Vance, and around 4 in 10 voters between the ages of 18 and 29 don't have an opinion on Walz, according to the AP-NORC poll.