Who is Mike Pence? Majority Have No Idea
Poll shows voters don't know enough to form an opinion on Trump VP pick
People know who Donald Trump is, but his running mate? Not so much.
When Americans are asked for their opinion on Indiana Gov. Mike Pence as a potential vice president, the most common response is a figurative shrug of the shoulder, according to a new Economist/YouGov poll .
When it comes to their general opinion of Pence, 43 percent said they didn’t know. When asked if they liked him, regardless of whether they agreed with him on the issues, 54 percent said they were not sure.
Is Pence ready to be commander in chief? 43 percent were not sure and 35 percent said he was not ready.
Asked about their confidence in Pence to handle foreign affairs: 44 percent were unsure how he would handle an international crisis, while 42 percent were not sure when it came to terrorism.
A slight majority of the registered voters polled said they had no feelings about GOP nominee Trump choosing Pence to be his running mate.
This gives the Indiana governor an opportunity to use his big speech to the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night to introduce himself and make the argument that he is ready for the vice presidency.
Even if Pence’s speech on Wednesday night at the Republican convention is ultimately viewed favorably as a success as the Trump campaign certainly hopes it will be, 58 percent of registered voters said that the Pence selection “makes no difference” to their decision on whether to vote for Trump or not.
The poll was conducted July 15-17 among 1,300 registered voters. It had a margin of error of 4.3 percentage points.