Here's What Polls Say About The VP Candidates

As Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) head into the vice presidential debate on Tuesday night, polls reveal that voters don’t know enough to have much of an opinion of either candidate. 

According to the HuffPost Pollster favorable rating chart, Pence has a net positive rating of 6 percent, with a 37/31 percent favorable/unfavorable score.  A significant number of voters 32 percent are undecided on how they feel about him.

Clinton’s running mate is in a similar position. Polls show Kaine with a net favorable rating of just over 1 percent. His favorable/unfavorable rating sits at about 32/30 percent.

Kaine is far more popular among constituents in his home state compared to Pence, however. 

A Morning Consult poll of Senatorial approval ratings conducted in September found 54 percent of Virginians approve of Kaine and about a quarter disapprove.

Comparatively, a September Morning Consult poll of Gubernatorial approval ratings  finds Pence with a 45/45 percent approval/disapproval rating among Indiana constituents. 

But heading into Tuesday night’s debate, a CNN poll released Tuesday morning  shows both candidates are even at the start line: 39 percent of likely voters say Pence would do a better job and 39 percent believe Kaine would be better. Voter support is divided along party lines. 

This all begs the question if VP debates even matter. Vice presidential debates rarely attract high viewership , with the exception of the Joe Biden and Sarah Palin  one in 2008. It’s likely that more people will form an opinion of both candidates after the debate, but studies show that VP debates rarely move the needle of an election.