Donald Trump's running mate JD Vance is the most unpopular vice president in history, with a net unfavorability rating even higher that of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, according to an average of the polls.
Vance, a Republican senator from Ohio, has a favorable rating of 33% and an unfavorable rating of 42%, according to an average of the polls by FiveThirtyEight.
His unfavorability slide began three days after Trump named him as his running mate when he was already posting a net -3 percentage point disadvantage (26% favorable, 29% unfavorable), the report said.
Amid headlines condeming "childless cat ladies" and his vocal support for a national abortion ban, Vance's unfavorability expanded to the present net -9 points.
"That is a historically bad net favorability rating for a vice-presidential candidate. We applied our current favorability polling average formula to old polls of six freshly minted VP picks from the past 20 years, and none of them ever had an average net favorability rating as low as Vance's," FiveThirtyEight noted in the report.
Palin, Sen. John McCain's running mate in 2008, had a -2 point net favorability by the end of that year's presidential campaign.
The report pointed out that Palin started out after her speech at the Republican National Convention with a net favorability rating of +21 (47% favorable, 25% unfavorable).
By contrast, Vance's Democratic counterpart, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is enjoying a 38% favorability to 33% unfavorability rating.
The report notes, however, that his unfavorable rating is rising slightly faster than his favorable rating as he faces accusations about his military service in the National Guard from Republicans.
John Edwards, the vice president candidate in John Kerry's 2004 campaign, had the highest net positive favorability ratings (48% favorable, 26% unfavorable).
The only other vice presidential candidate with a lower net unfavorability rating below Palin's was Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine during Hillary Clinton's presidential run in 2016.
