If Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) was hoping that the backlash to his public disdain for childless women was isolated to the hyper-online, op-ed reading left, he underestimated how badly he screwed up.
According to a new University of Massachusetts Amherst survey, the results of which were provided exclusively to Rolling Stone, 51 percent of Americans strongly disagree with the idea that Kamala Harris not having biological children hinders her ability to serve as president. The number jumps to 64 percent when one includes those who somewhat disagree with the statement. Only 10 percent of respondents, 11 percent of parents, and 15 percent of Republicans agree with this sentiment.
And the poll suggests Democratic messaging efforts are working: When respondents were asked to provide a word that describes Vance, one of the top answers by far was “weird.”
In his short stint as former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Vance has drawn a firestorm of criticism for complaining that America is being run “by a bunch of childless cat ladies, who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made,” while referring to Vice President Kamala Harris, who has two stepchildren through her marriage to Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff.
Vance has not withdrawn the statement but has instead attempted to strike a sloppy balance between doubling down and moving the goalposts. In an interview with former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, Vance was asked about his past comments and offered a weird joke: “I’ve got nothing against cats. I’ve got nothing against dogs.” He added: “People are focusing so much on the sarcasm and not on the substance of what I actually said, and the substance of what I said, Megyn, I’m sorry, it’s true.”
In an interview last week, Trump defended Vance’s comments without endorsing them, saying that Vance “thinks the family experience is a very important thing.”
Meanwhile, more of Vance’s past unsavory commentary continues to be unearthed.
The senator has suggested that people without children should be punished with higher taxes, and that parents should get additional votes representing their children to more heavily influence elections.
As previously reported by Rolling Stone, Vance urged the right to “go to war against the anti-child ideology that exists in our country.” And he argued a national abortion ban is necessary to stop people from traveling across state lines for abortions. Otherwise, liberal donor George Soros will send commercial airliners daily “to Columbus to load up disproportionately Black women to get them to go have abortions in California,” Vance said, predicting that “the left will celebrate this as a victory for diversity.”
All this, combined with viral — false — rumors surrounding Vance’s sexual desires for couches have created a decidedly negative impression of the potential VP among voters.
The UMass Amherst’s survey results were notable not only because of the clear backlash to Vance, but because, according to UMass Poll director Tatishe M. Nteta, it found “even Republicans, Trump voters, and conservatives disagreeing with Vance’s viewpoints.”
Given the unpopularity of Vance’s position,” Nteta said, “it is no wonder that Vance and the Trump campaign have been furiously trying to walk back Vance’s comments, but the damage may already have been done.”
The UMass Poll results contained even more bad news for Trump regarding Vance, whom Democrats have taken to calling “weird” as part of their campaign messaging strategy. The survey asked respondents to give one-word descriptions of Vance — without any priming — and created a word cloud using the results. The two largest words: “unknown,” right next to “weird.”
