JD Vance Hit by Double-Digit Approval Drop in New Poll

Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance has seen his overall popularity among college students decline by double-digit percentage points over the past two weeks, according to a new poll.

Positive attitudes toward Vance suffered most among college graduates, falling 28 points to -27 percent in August, from +1 percent in July.

Vance’s waning popularity comes amid ongoing criticism of his past comments on women in abusive relationships, abortion and the childless, as well as his heavy involvement in the 2025 Project, a controversial proposed policy document from the Heritage Foundation that the Trump campaign has sought to distance itself from.

The Marist Poll, commissioned by NPR and PBS and conducted Aug. 1-4 among 1,613 adults, found that Vance’s favorability rating (a measure of positive opinions minus negative ones) was down 5 percentage points from the company’s previous poll, conducted in July.

Newsweek reached out to the Trump/Vance campaign by email for comment.

In July, his overall positivity rating was -3 percent (28 percent positive vs. 31 percent negative), but by August it had worsened to -9 percent (34 percent positive vs. 43 percent negative).

Vance has also become more popular since the July poll, which was conducted just a week after Donald Trump chose him as his vice presidential running mate. The number of people who are unsure about him or are unfamiliar with him has fallen from 41 percent to just 23 percent.

The majority of voters who formed an opinion of him over the past two weeks sided with his opponents, which was reflected in a general decline in the candidate’s overall popularity.

The data reveals significant polarization along party lines. Among Republicans, Vance’s net approval rating rose to an impressive +61 percent, up from +46 percent in July.

But his standing among Democrats has taken a dramatic turn for the worse, with his net favorability falling to -59 percent, down from -33 percent last month. Among independents, a key group of voters, Vance’s net favorability has also taken a big hit, falling from -16 percent to -27 percent.

According to polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight, Marist is a reputable polling firm that ranked No. 6 out of 277 firms for its historical track record and transparent methodology, giving it a rating of 2.9 out of three stars.

There have even been suggestions (often denied by Trump’s team) that the former president might try to change his vice presidential candidate to improve his chances of defeating Kamala Harris in November.

Meanwhile, Harris’ ratings have surged into net positive territory after posting low approval ratings during her term as vice president. She also took a lead in several states where Trump was leading Joe Biden before the president ended his reelection bid.