JD Vance has been making history since before he was even sworn in. Unfortunately for him, none of it has been good.
It started early.
Back in July 2024, Harry Enten noted on CNN that Vance was the first vice presidential nominee since 1980 to have a net negative favorability rating immediately following his party’s convention. “JD Vance, making history in the completely wrong way,” Enten said at the time. That was the warning. Nobody listened.
Since then, things have not stabilized. Vance’s net approval rating has now dropped from plus 3 points to minus 18. “That is a 21-point swing in the wrong direction,” Enten said on CNN, adding with characteristic understatement, “Down he goes.”
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The historical comparison is brutal.
Kamala Harris sat at minus 13 at a comparable point. Mike Pence stood at minus 7. Joe Biden had a net positive of 4 points. Dick Cheney, a man who shot his friend in the face and started two wars, managed to plus 37. Vance is behind all of them.
Enten described Vance as “historically the worst” among modern vice presidents at this stage, while noting that vice presidents in general have been trending less popular over time. That trend, he acknowledged, does not fully explain how far Vance has fallen. “JD Vance is not doing too hot to trot at this point,” he said.
The Iran war has not helped.
A CNN poll conducted in late March found Vance’s approval at 37% with 62% disapproving, a net rating of minus 25. That poll landed as the administration was in the middle of its most chaotic week, with Trump threatening to wipe out a civilization and Vance learning about U.S. bombings from a journalist in Budapest.
Through it all, Vance has stayed on script. He stood alongside Trump in the Oval Office in March and said Iran was “a problem that has festered in this country for far too long,” adding that critics were trying to “drive a wedge” inside the White House.
Looking ahead, the political consequences are starting to show. Enten noted that Vance’s chances of securing the 2028 Republican nomination have fallen from 53% six months ago to 37%, tied for his all-time low on prediction markets.
There is also a layer of irony that has not gone unnoticed. Some analysts have pointed out that if Trump were removed from office, the constitutional order of succession would hand the presidency to Vance, who in some recent polls registers as even less popular than the president.
Enten tied it together in the end. He said Vance was being “dragged down along with the president of the United States” as the broader political environment weighs on the entire administration.
Featured image via YouTube screengrab
