fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

Having Marco Rubio or Paul Ryan as VP Doesn’t Help the GOP Ticket

PPP released a poll on Friday showing that Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan hurt the Republican ticket slightly: Then there are the potential VP’s who hurt Romney- if only slightly. Ron Paul as running mate expands Obama’s lead to 4 points at 48-44, Paul Ryan ups it to 5 at 48-43, Rubio to 6 at […]

PPP released a poll on Friday showing that Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan hurt the Republican ticket slightly:

Then there are the potential VP’s who hurt Romney- if only slightly. Ron Paul as running mate expands Obama’s lead to 4 points at 48-44, Paul Ryan ups it to 5 at 48-43, Rubio to 6 at 49-43, and Palin to 7 at 50-43.

Some other notes on the poll:

-Rubio’s favorability with Hispanics nationally is 35/42. Without Rubio on the ticket Obama leads Romney 68-30 with them, with Rubio on the ticket it’s cut only to 67-32.

According to this poll, having Ryan or Rubio on the ticket reduces support for the Republican ticket by three points. The poll confirms that adding Rubio as VP nominee makes very little difference with the group his selection is supposed to win over. It also finds that Romney-Rubio and Romney-Ryan tickets alienate the same kinds of voters. Fewer somewhat conservative and very conservative respondents support the ticket when compared with a Romney-Christie combination. Having Ryan as VP loses eight points among somewhat conservative respondents, and Rubio loses five. Moderate voters are a bit more likely to support Obama against either pairing. It’s true that large numbers of respondents are unsure how they view Rubio and Ryan, because they are still unknown to many Americans, but it is telling that their favorability ratings among those that have an opinion are negative. Among women, Rubio and Ryan are viewed much less favorably with 23/29% for Rubio and 19/29% for Ryan, and even among men Ryan’s favorability is negative (32/39%).

So why should anyone care? It is useful to remember just how relatively unpopular and nationally unknown these two politicians are when so many Republicans are certain that one or both of them would be a great addition to the presidential ticket. Setting aside for the moment the small problem that neither of them is qualified to be next in line to the Presidency, I am impressed by how far inside their own bubble so many Republicans must be that they don’t understand that Rubio and Ryan would make poor running mates.

Advertisement

Comments

The American Conservative Memberships
Become a Member today for a growing stake in the conservative movement.
Join here!
Join here