New Poll Finds JD Vance Is 'Relatively Unknown', Can That Be An Opportunity? | HarrisX/Forbes Poll

  • 2 months ago
HarrisX Founder and CEO Dritan Nesho joins Brittany Lewis on "Forbes Newsroom" to discuss Donald Trump's newly appointed running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH).

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript


Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
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.

Recommended