JD Vance's Upcoming RNC Speech Will Introduce Him To Nearly Half Of Electorate: New Poll

3 months ago

On "Forbes Newsroom," HarrisX Founder and CEO Dritan Nesho discussed a new HarrisX/Forbes poll showing the opinion of Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) prior to his RNC speech.

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Transcript

00:00The RNC kicked off this week and arguably the biggest news to come out of the convention

00:05is the fact that Donald Trump selected his running mate and that person is Senator J.D.

00:10Vance of Ohio. So first of all, Harris X and Forbes conducted a poll about the new nominee.

00:17What do voters think about J.D. Vance? Well, first, what you have to keep in mind about J.D.

00:24Vance is that even though he's been around for a few years as a senator and before that

00:30as a political figure after writing his very famous book, The Hillbilly Eulogy,

00:38he's still relatively unknown. And what I mean by that is that 21 percent of voters have not

00:44heard of him yet and the full 23 percent don't have an opinion. So roughly half of the whole

00:50electorate is waiting to be introduced properly to J.D. Vance and that's the opportunity that he

00:57will have tonight once he has his speech in front of the Republican National Convention. But I would

01:05say that of those who do know him, roughly equal numbers view him favorably to unfavorably. 27

01:11percent favorably, 29 percent unfavorably. When you think of the top contenders for VP,

01:19up until this week when it was announced, it was Marco Rubio, Tim Scott, amongst others.

01:26And these are lawmakers who have more of a national presence. Both of them have ran for

01:31president at some point in their career. The fact that J.D. Vance isn't as much of a household name,

01:36does that really hurt him in this? Well, he's got room to grow and he'll be built up in many

01:44different ways. What we know today is that when we ask, do you support the selection of J.D. Vance

01:53or oppose it, 40 percent support it, 30 percent oppose it, and 30 percent are unsure of what

02:02to make of it just yet. But amongst Republicans, 70 percent support it. And when you ask Republicans,

02:09are you more or less likely to vote for Trump because of the selection of J.D. Vance as vice

02:15president, 41 percent that they are more likely to vote for him, four percent say that they're

02:20less likely to vote for him, and about 55 percent say that it will not impact their vote. And therein

02:27you get everything you need to know about vice presidential selections. The old quip is that

02:32a vice president doesn't help you, he can only hurt you. And I think that in this election with

02:40J.D. Vance, Trump is tipping the hat to his base and selecting someone that plays very well and

02:47very strong with the Republican base, despite his low name. So typically you're saying historically

02:55VP selection can only hurt you. Do you think that that matters here right now? Do you think

03:02that could be true? So it's yet to be seen, right? And as you can see, the Democratic Party and the

03:11Biden campaign has already started attacking J.D. Vance from the first moment of his announcement

03:20in order to shape those perceptions. And as they say in politics, you want to shape your opponent

03:26in the minds of the voter and in the minds of the public before they have the chance to do so

03:32themselves. Right now as it stands for the whole electorate, you know, 21 percent say that they're

03:38more likely to vote for Trump because he selected Vance, 18 percent say that they're less likely to

03:44vote for Trump because of that. So it's by and large a wash within the margin of error. And

03:5161 percent, close to two thirds, say that it will not impact their vote,

03:57meaning that they're either voting because of Trump or Biden or some other driver,

04:03not the vice presidential nominee.

JD Vance's Upcoming RNC Speech Will Introduce Him To Nearly Half Of Electorate: New Poll

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