JD Vance said he does not believe public opinion polls and that he cares about “winning the trust of the American voters” instead.
Donald Trump was significantly ahead in the polls earlier this year, when the race was against Joe Biden, but Kamala Harris has managed to close that gap since becoming the Democratic nominee, enjoying the lead in many of them.
When Vance was asked about this at a campaign event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Monday, he said he did not believe the polls when they show him and Trump up, tied or down.
A reporter asked him: “On July 21, Donald Trump was ahead of Joe Biden by 4.5 percent in an average of polls in Pennsylvania. Today it’s a statistical tie between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
“One, do you believe the polls? And, two, if you do, how do you get that ground back?”
Vance responded: “Well look, I don’t believe the polls when they say that we’re up, I don’t believe the polls when they say tied, I don’t believe the polls that say that we’re down. Our job is to win the trust of the American voters, not public opinion polls.”
AP
The Ohio senator went on to talk about when polls predicted a loss before he beat his Democratic opponent Tim Tyan by 6.1 percentage points in 2022.
Indeed, Ryan was the favorite to lead according to FiveThirtyEight’s average collection of polls in September that year, albeit quite narrowly, 45 to 44.5 percent.
Vance said: “What I think, and I saw this in my race for the Senate, I remember when all the public opinion polls in August said that I was going to lose my race in the United States Senate and then I won in a pretty convincing fashion just a couple of months later.
“I believe that the media puts out these polls knowing that it’s going to depress turnout and it’s going to make the conversation about the polls. Who cares what the polls say? Whether they say we’re up or down, what I care about is that Americans can’t afford groceries.
“That’s why we’re running and that’s the problem that we’re going to fix and that’s why Donald Trump, I believe, is going to win the state of Pennsylvania—he’s going to win the whole country.”
It comes as a new survey conducted by Navigator Research has shown that Kamala Harris is not leading in a single battleground state.
The poll, carried out between July 31 and August 8, showed the Democratic presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump are tied in Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin, while Harris is behind in Arizona and Pennsylvania.
