Vice presidents are often treated like laughingstocks, and they’re very seldom popular. But J.D. Vance appears uniquely unpopular, even by vice president standards.
Per The Washington Monthly, which cites the RealClearPolitics polling average, Vance’s approval rating at the two-month mark of his vice presidency is lower than that of his predecessor Kamala Harris at the same point and “perhaps worse than any new vice president in the history of polling,” at least at this stage of his vice presidency.
JD Vance is now officially the most disliked new Vice President in American history, according to new data. pic.twitter.com/mkD93Nu1D1
— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) March 21, 2025
According to that RCP average, Vance’s favorability rating is just 41.7 percent, while his unfavorability rating is 44.8 percent. This places him underwater and less popular than his ticket-mate, Donald Trump.
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Even figures like Dick Cheney and Joe Biden, at this point in their vice presidencies, were more popular than Vance is now, although Mike Pence’s unfavorable remained in the low 40s during the first year of his lone term as vice president.
Per Washington Monthly, Vance possibly risks joining Pence and another Indiana Republican, Dan Quayle, as vice presidents who could never earn their party’s presidential nomination.
Indeed, while Trump chose Vance with the presumption that he could be Trump’s successor as both president and the de facto leader of the post-Trump Republican Party, Trump has not yet officially endorsed him as such.
In the Super Bowl interview in early February, Trump was asked if he views Vance as his successor, and the president answered “No, but is he very capable. I mean, I don’t think that, you know, I think you have a lot of very capable people.” This was viewed by some as Trump leaving open the possibility that he would pick someone else as his designated successor, or possibly that Trump would hint at trying to find some way to seek a third term.
“It was just really disappointing to see it” and “I disagreed with that tact.” JD Vance’s cousin who volunteered to fight in Ukraine speaks to OutFront against the VP’s treatment of Zelensky in the Oval Office. pic.twitter.com/zk7AkpzrS9
— Erin Burnett OutFront (@OutFrontCNN) March 11, 2025
Vance’s most memorable moment as vice president so far is likely when he scolded Ukraine’s President Zelensky in the Oval Office—something that later earned a rebuke from the veep’s cousin, Nate Vance, who actually volunteered to fight in Ukraine.
Photo courtesy of the Political Tribune media library.
