JD Vance has spent a year-and-a-half positioning himself as Donald Trump’s heir apparent. But there’s one thing he may be lacking, according to political analysts and people on social media: charisma.
The vice president is the presumed front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028, but his lead may be slipping. In a new Emerson College/The Hill survey, Secretary of State Marco Rubio performs slightly better in four of five hypothetical matchups. (Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, meanwhile, holds a 5-point edge over both Republicans.)
Vance is unpopular with Americans, just barely surpassing Trump in favorability polls: A survey released in June by Navigator Research, a Democratic-aligned nonprofit, showed his ratings remain low on major issues like inflation and cost of living (-27 net approval) and gas prices (-39 net approval), with his approval on immigration earning him his highest net score (-9).
While they didn’t poll anything as nebulous as “charisma,” the pundit class and the internet have spoken: Vance is kind of a “charisma vacuum.”
Vance often tells jokes that fall flat. Take earlier this week when he was introduced before a speech in Brewer, Maine, by Jamie Beers, a local maintenance manager at a defense technology company who happened to have a beard.
