Everywhere Vice President Kamala Harris goes this week, GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance is following. It’s not unusual for presidential contenders and their running mates to shadow their opponents, but in this case the strategy might not play out the way Republicans want it to—especially with women voters.
Vance is not hosting traditional rallies in the same cities on the same days as Harris, instead opting for “press appearances” nearby. The first will take place in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Vance will then follow Harris to: Detroit, Michigan; Eau Claire, Wisconsin; and Raleigh, North Carolina. After Donald Trump’s rally size failure in Atlanta over the weekend (it was filled to capacity for Harris just days before), it’s no wonder the GOP ticket is not trying to compete on crowd size.
As The Daily Beast reports, the Ohio senator will appear at a South Philadelphia venue that “regularly hosts fights and wrestling events, a perfect fit as Vance and the Trump campaign work to court young men with an interest in combat sports.” Yeah, kind of creepy.
It’s pretty clear Vance has a problem with women, in more than one sense.
He has displayed overt hostility with his “childless cat ladies” rant and his belief that women should be trapped in “even violent” marriages. That’s not even getting into how he wants the government to control women’s bodies.
How badly is he playing among women? The usually apolitical movie star Jennifer Aniston went after him for his casual and callous disregard for childless women. Even Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski has blasted Vance.
“If the Republican Party is trying to improve its image with women, I don’t think that this is working,” Murkowski told Politico. “To be so derogatory in this way is offensive to me as a woman.”
Faux hillbilly Vance is even garnering bad headlines in the usually bland People Magazine for his inflammatory comments about women and their place in society.
That leads to Vance’s other problem with women—or more to the point, among women. He’s not just the least liked vice presidential pick in decades, he’s in a huge hole with women in particular. Check out the crosstabs on Vance’s approval in July’s Civiqs poll for Daily Kos: He is 31 points underwater with women, with a 59% disapproval rating compared to a 28% approval rating.
Not that he’s popular overall. He has a dismal 34% approval rating among all voters, with 51% disapproving. It doesn’t seem far-fetched to guess that the 8% of Republican voters who don’t like him are primarily women.
That makes the success of his stalker’s tour of Harris unlikely, at best.
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