Tim Walz has maintained his generally higher popularity rating over JD Vance ahead of their debate, according to a new poll that gives Walz a six-point margin.
The two vice presidential candidates are gearing up to go head-to-head in a debate moderated by CBS News on Tuesday night in New York.
Vance is going in with lower favorability ratings, something he has struggled with since he was picked as Donald Trump’s running mate, Morning Consult’s new poll shows.
The survey, carried out among 2,121 likely U.S. voters between September 27 and 29, found Walz had a 45 percent popularity rating over Vance’s 39 percent. The poll disclaims a margin of error of +/- two percentage points.
Researchers attributed Vance’s “consistently” lower favorability numbers to their findings that “voters continue to be more likely to report hearing something positive than negative” about Walz.
Indeed, 34 percent of folks who had heard something about Walz in the past week said it was positive while 25 percent said it had been negative.
Comparatively, just 22 percent said what they had heard about Vance in the last week was positive, while 40 percent said it was negative.
Vance has had a lower net favorability rating than Walz throughout this election, according to Morning Consult’s trend tracker, although the margins between them have fluctuated over the months.
But the Ohio senator has had a popularity advantage over Republicans in Congress, in general, multiple times, most noticeably on July 21 when his net favorability was -1, compared to the Congress Republican’s -10. However, this no longer seems to be the case, as the latest poll shows both at -9.
Newsweek has contacted Vance’s team, via email, for comment.
Vance has previously said he does not believe in public opinion polls. Last month, when Vance was speaking at a campaign event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he said: “I don’t believe the polls when they say that we’re up, I don’t believe the polls when they say tied, I don’t believe the polls that say that we’re down. Our job is to win the trust of the American voters, not public opinion polls.”
Tuesday’s debate will air on CBS News at 9 p.m. on October 1. CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell and Face the Nation moderator and chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan will moderate.
Much is at stake for both Vance and Walz, as this will be the last event both campaigns have agreed to before the election in November.
AP
