JD Vance Is Less Popular With Men Than Women, New Poll Shows

GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance is less popular among men than women, a poll shows.

The Ohio senator has come under scrutiny by both liberals and conservatives for his comments about women and reproductive rights, but a Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll released Friday found that the candidate struggles more with male voters than female voters.

The survey, conducted among 2,336 respondents between August 9 and 13, found that Vance has a -12 favorability rating among men and a -8 favorability rating among women. It also showed that his comments have not done much to alienate voters without children, given that his net favorability rating is -10 among both parents and those without children at home.

Newsweek reached out to Vance via email for comment.

Shortly after former President Donald Trump announced Vance as his running mate, clips have resurfaced of the senator referring to Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democratic figures as "a bunch of childless cat ladies" and saying that parents should have more electoral power. Since then, the Ohio Republican has doubled down on his comments.

Although those remarks haven't made a major dent among voters without kids, Friday's poll had other bad news for Vance. Aside from his poor numbers among non-Republican-leaning groups, he is also underwater with independent voters, who gave him a -15 favorability rating, as well as all age groups.

Vance struggles especially among voters under 40, with a -22 favorability rating. This could be a bad sign for the GOP ticket because the 40-year-old's presence was expected to help 78-year-old Trump's standing among young voters.

Vance did see positive ratings among white Christians, white evangelical Protestants and rural Americans.

On the other hand, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz's ratings are positive among most groups. The Minnesota governor does equally well among men and women, with +9 favorability, and especially well among young voters, with +16 favorability.

In terms of the overall ratings, 42 percent of all respondents said they had a strongly or somewhat unfavorable impression of Vance, compared with 30 percent who said the same about Walz. The poll found that 39 percent of respondents had a strongly or somewhat favorable impression of Walz, compared with just 32 percent who said the same about Vance.

The poll has a margin of error of +/-2 percentage points.

Vance's and Walz's ratings are still more negative than those for VPs from most past elections.

The pollster's 2020 survey found that 54 percent of Americans approved of Joe Biden's decision to pick Kamala Harris as his running mate. Its 2012 poll found that 51 percent approved of Mitt Romney's selection of Paul Ryan.

Reactions to Trump's choice of Mike Pence in 2016 were not measured, but a Gallup poll found that 37 percent described the selection as "excellent" or "pretty good."