Each month the I&I/TIPP Poll reports on President Donald Trump’s favorability and approval among voters. But what about Vice President J.D. Vance? I&I/TIPP has numbers for him too, and they make for interesting insights into Vance’s approval by the voting public and his potential as a presidential candidate in 2028.

The numbers, as we noted above, come from monthly national online opinion soundings of approximately 1,400 adults, spread across all regions and 36 demographic groups. With over 15 months of data, starting in February of 2025, some clear trends emerge.

Overall, it’s a good news, bad news scenario for Vance. His favorability with the public in April was 39.1, tied for the third-highest ever and a full percentage point above the 38.1 average over the 15 months. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that his “unfavorability” rating for April was 41.9, the highest yet, and well above the average of 37.1 for his tenure as Trump’s veep.

Still worse Vance’s net favorability numbers (favorability minus unfavorability), after being positive for nearly all of 2025, have dived into the red this year. Vance may have been hurt some among both Dems and independents because of Trump’s recent foreign policy activism, which shows up as a major issue for non-Republicans in recent I&I/TIPP Polls.

Vance’s net favorability averaged +2.2 percentage points in 2025, with only November registering a slight drop. So far in 2026, Vance’s net favorability averages -2.5 percentage points, with April’s number at -2.8 percentage points.

A noticeable drop. What gives?

For one thing, negative favorability has been almost entirely driven by higher unfavorability ratings. While that matters, the unfavorable ratings tend to be more volatile and changeable. That means Vance has time to turn his current favorability deficit into a surplus.

Part of Vance’s problem also might be the current ideologically-driven U.S. political debate, particularly serving under a highly controversial activist president. Vance’s weak numbers may reflect the anger many Democrats and independents feel toward Trump.

Indeed, when you look at Vance’s actual base — Republicans — there’s been no drop in favorability at all. Starting 2025 with a +57.2 rating among Republicans, his rating soared to +69.3 in April, a gain of +12.1 percentage points.

As I&I/TIPP Poll founder and president Raghavan Mayur notes, “He’s not just holding the base, he’s strengthening it.”

That momentum among base voters is significant, given we’re more than two years away from the 2028 presidential election.

So who are Vance’s biggest fans, besides Republicans? Start with men.

Vance has never had a negative month among male voters. In April, men were at a +4.7, lower than the average of +11.1 since February 2025. But April’s number came amid the noise and debate over the Iran war, and followed March’s strong +13.2.

Vance has also remained above water among white voters, a key base of his support. Since taking office, Vance has averaged +7.5 approval among whites. While April’s +2.7 was the lowest yet, again, it came during the worst time for the Iran-U.S.-Israel war.

This is key since white voters tend to turn out to vote in larger numbers than other groups. In 2024, for instance, 70.5% of eligible whites voted. That compares to just 59.6% of blacks, 57.1% of Asians, and 50.6% of Hispanics.

Another group that shows a strong affinity for Vance: Voters with a high school education, the backbone of America’s working class. As many know from Vance’s best-selling autobiographical book, “Hillbilly Elegy,” his background is solidly working class.

That shows in his support among high-school grads. Since February 2025, Vance has been in the red only four times with this group. In April, he received a +1.2 favorability rating.

Working-class Americans see the Marine veteran, up-from-poverty Vance as one of them. But so do those with college degrees or higher. While over the past three months, Vance (bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University, law degree from Yale) has slipped into the red with this group, before that, he was 12 straight months in positive territory.

Independents are currently sour on Vance at -22.6 net favorability, perhaps reflecting Trump’s problems with that group. But at the start of his vice presidency, indie voters were basically split on Vance. And as a group, they tend to be movable in their opinions, not set. He’ll have time to reach out as 2028 approaches to build support.

One group, however, is unambiguous in its negative opinion of Vance: women. While men solidly support Vance, women are the opposite, with an average net favorability rating of -8.6. And the trend isn’t exactly improving: In April, it was -9.8, and -13.3 the month before.

Even so, since 2004, every Republican nominee has faced a double-digit gender gap. Nonetheless, they won three of those elections.

For Vance, the challenge is pretty clear.

Trump’s hyper-aggressive leadership style can be off-putting, even as he successfully reshapes and downsizes the federal government. It would be easy for a Veep to be pushed to the deep background while serving under such a leader, becoming an afterthought.

However, Vance has shown himself to be both smart and savvy as vice president, and it’s still early in Trump’s final term. Vance has plenty of time to distinguish himself from Trump in both style and policy. And his small -2.8 percentage point net favorability rating in the latest I&I/TIPP Poll shows he’s still in the game.

I&I/TIPP publishes timely, unique, and informative data each month on topics of public interest. TIPP’s reputation for polling excellence comes from being the most accurate pollster for the past six presidential elections.

Terry Jones is an editor of Issues & Insights. His four decades of journalism experience include serving as national issues editor, economics editor, and editorial page editor for Investor’s Business Daily.