(The Hill) — Less than a third of U.S. adults say Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) is either the “best” or a “good” choice for former President Donald Trump’s running mate, according to a collection of snap polls from YouGov.
The surveys, conducted Monday evening after Vance was officially named to the GOP ticket, found that only 27 percent of U.S. adults say the Ohio Republican is the “best” or a “good” option as Trump’s pick for vice president.
A plurality of respondents, 37 percent, say they are “not sure” if he is a good choice, while 16 percent say the decision is “neither good nor bad,” per the polls.
Of those with a positive opinion about Trump’s choice, 12 percent say Vance is “the best possible pick he could have made,” and 15 percent say Vance is “a good pick, but not the best possible pick.”
On the other side, about 20 percent of respondents view the selection in a negative light: 11 percent say Vance is a “bad pick, but not the worst possible pick” and 9 percent say the first-term senator is “the worst possible pick he could have made.”
Republicans have the most positive views of Vance as Trump’s running mate, with only 4 percent describing Vance as either a “bad pick but not the worst” (2 percent) or “the worst possible pick” (2 percent).
A majority of Republicans say the Buckeye State senator is either the “best possible pick” (27 percent) or “a good pick but not the best possible pick” (29 percent).
The same poll measures Vance’s favorability among U.S. adults. A plurality (43 percent) say they are “not sure” whether they have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of Vance.
Public opinion is otherwise split, with 29 percent viewing him favorably (14 percent say “very favorable”; 15 percent say “somewhat favorable”) and 29 percent viewing him unfavorably (22 percent say “very unfavorable”; 7 percent say “somewhat unfavorable”).
The poll results come after the first night of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, where Trump was formally named the GOP nominee for president. Vance was also announced as the winner of the former president’s veepstakes race, and subsequently nominated as Trump’s running mate.
The collection of snap polls from YouGov was conducted on July 15 among 3,003 U.S. adults.
