Everyone in reality-based America agrees: Sen. JD Vance of Ohio is not well-liked. His national rollout after being picked as Donald Trump's running mate is likely the worst in modern history. Vance is deeply plugged into the fascism-curious world of the extremely online right. There's been a drumbeat of stories of him endorsing views like hunger is a "great motivation" to work, the "whole purpose of the postmenopausal female" is to provide free childcare, and that progressives are "unhumans" who deserve fascist violence. The seemingly endless number of clips of him condemning childless women as "sociopaths" and "miserable cat ladies" have drawn the most attention, likely because it's tied to the larger GOP agenda of forcing childbirth through abortion bans.
This all seems self-evident, but sure, up for debate on the grounds of subjectivity. But the polls are clear. At the start of his vice presidential run, when most Americans couldn't pick him out of a line-up, Vance's unfavorable rating was relatively low. Now that voters are getting to know him, they dislike him, leading to him being underwater in favorability by 12 percentage points. In contrast, Vice President Kamala Harris's running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, is up 11 points in favorability. Vance is even more unpopular than Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor whose 2008 vice presidential run helped sink the campaign of Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
