September 25, 2024
Ahead of the debate between the vice-presidential candidates on October 1, about a quarter of registered voters remain unfamiliar with Kamala Harris’ and Donald Trump’s running mates. Democrats are more positive about Tim Walz than Republicans are about JD Vance
Trump named JD Vance as his running mate on the first day of the Republican National Convention, which was held July 15-18 in Milwaukee. Views of JD Vance haven’t shifted much since Trump’s announcement. In an AP-NORC poll taken about a week after the Republican National Convention, 28% of registered voters had a favorable opinion of Vance, including 55% of Republican voters.
By August, 29% of registered voters and 60% of Republican voters had a favorable opinion. And Vance’s numbers are similar in the latest poll with 27% of all voters and 57% of Republican voters holding a favorable view.
Harris announced her selection of Tim Walz to run with her on the Democratic ticket in early August ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago August 19-22. At that time, 39% of registered voters and 64% of Democratic voters had a positive view of Walz. The latest poll finds a similar number of all voters with a favorable opinion of Walz.
Democrats are more negative toward Vance than Republicans are toward Walz. Independents are also more negative toward Vance than Walz. About a quarter of registered voters report they don’t know enough to share an opinion about each candidate.
Both vice presidential candidates are less-well known than their running mates, and less well-liked by their parties. Eighty-eight percent of Democratic registered voters have a favorable opinion of Harris, and 77% of Republican voters have a positive view of Trump.
Groups that have a favorable opinion of Harris also tend to have a positive view of Walz, including Black voters, voters with a college degree, and older voters. Like views of Trump, white voters are more positive about Vance than Black voters.
The nationwide poll was conducted September 12-16, 2024 using the AmeriSpeak® Panel, the probability based panel of NORC at the University of Chicago. Online and telephone interviews using landlines and cell phones were conducted with 2,028 adults, including 1,771 self-reported registered voters. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3.4 percentage points for registered voters.
- Suggested Citation: AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (September 2024). https://apnorc.org/projects/tim-walz-is-viewed-more-positively-by-voters-than-jd-vance/
