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J.D. Vance’s chances of becoming the GOP nominee for president in 2028 have taken a dive, according to a new poll.
The survey looking at potential successors to Donald Trump has seen the vice-president’s lead in a list of theoretical candidates narrow significantly in recent months.
In August, Vance had a 20-point lead over the second most popular choice — Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr — with a 36 percent share of votes to 16 percent.
By October, while Vance was still on top with 38 percent, Trump Jr had started to close the gap in the McLaughlin and Associates poll with 20 percent.
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J.D. Vance’s lead in the polls has fallen significantly in recent months (Reuters)
And in the most recent poll in November, the vice-president’s margin continued to fall. According to the survey of 439 voters conducted between November 17 and 24, Vance’s lead over Trump Jr had plummeted to just 10 points. The latest results put Vance at 34 percent and Trump Jr at 24 percent.
Mark Shanahan, an associate professor at the University of Sussex, believes Vance’s apparent fall in popularity is linked to his connection to Trump.
“The issue for Vance is that he’s so closely tied to this administration,” Shanahan told Newsweek. “For the moment, he has to be in lockstep with the president. If he’s not, he simply isn’t doing the job he has been elected to fulfill. So, while Trump’s polling is languishing, Vance suffers.”
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Donald Trump Jr is creeping closer towards Vance in the polls (Tasos Katopodis/Getty)
The president’s polling figures have collapsed in recent months, with every major poll giving Trump a negative rating for the first time ever.
Even a Fox News poll suggested that 61 percent of respondents think that Trump’s administration has damaged the economy, with just 38 percent approving of his economic strategy.
A further 76 percent said that they view the economy negatively, with Fox analysts pointing to the fact that this is “worse than the 67 percent who felt that way in July and the 70 percent who said the same at the end of former President Biden’s term.”
Surveys carried out by YouGov, Gallup, Ipsos, R.M.G, Research, Morning Consult and Quinnipiac also showed that the president had a net negative approval rating from voters.
However, the White House has defended the president’s economic record, arguing that Trump has “already delivered on many of the promises he was elected to enact.”
“Trump has secured the border, tackled Biden’s inflation crisis, lowered drug prices, ended taxes on tips, overtime, and social security, cooled inflation, deported criminal illegal aliens, implemented important reforms putting American workers first, and more,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told the Daily Mail.
