Republican vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance has been stung by a double-digit dip in his net favorability among college students in the last two weeks, according to a fresh poll.
Vance’s net favorability has suffered the most among college graduates, where it dropped 28 points to -27 percent in August, compared to +1 percent in July.
Vance’s decreasing net favorability arrives amid continued scrutiny of his past comments about women in abusive relationships, abortion, and people without children, as well as his strong involvement with Project 2025, a controversial proposed policy document by the Heritage Foundation, which the Trump campaign has attempted to distance itself from.
The poll, conducted by Marist Poll for NPR and PBS surveyed 1613 adults between August 1 and August 4, found that Vance’s net favorability—a measure of favorable views minus unfavorable views—fell by 5 points compared to the firm’s previous poll in July.
Newsweek has approached the Trump/Vance campaign via email for comment.
In July, his net favorability stood at -3 percent overall (28 percent favorable versus 31 percent unfavorable), but by August, it had worsened to -9 percent (34 percent favorable versus 43 percent unfavorable).
Vance’s profile has also increased since the July poll, which came only one week after Donald Trump picked him as his running mate, with the number of people who were unsure or unfamiliar with him decreasing from 41 percent to only 23 percent.
Most of those voters who have formed opinions of him in the last two weeks moved into the unfavorable camp, as reflected in an overall downward shift in his net favorability.
The data reveals significant polarization across party lines. Among Republicans, Vance’s net favorability increased to an impressive +61 percent, up from +46 percent in July.
However, his standing among Democrats has dramatically deteriorated, with his net favorability plunging to -59 percent, compared to -33 percent last month. Among independents, a critical voter group, Vance’s net favorability has also taken a severe hit, dropping from -16 percent to -27 percent.
Marist is a reputable pollster, according to polling aggregator FiveThirtyEight, which ranks the firm 6th on its list of 277 firms for its historical track record and transparent methodology, giving it a rating of 2.9 stars out of three.
There have even been suggestions, which have frequently been dismissed by Trump’s team, that the former president may try to swap out his running mate to improve his chances of beating Kamala Harris in November.
Meanwhile, Harris’s approval ratings have surged into net positive, after suffering low approval during her term as vice president. She has also taken the polling lead in several battleground states where Trump had been leading against Joe Biden before the president ended his reelection bid.
