Republican Vice Presidential nominee Mike Pence heads up the top of ticket for the Republican Party in 2020, should Republican nominee Donald Trump lose in November, according to a Friday poll published by Morning Consult.
The largest number of Republicans supported Pence for president in 2020, with 22 percent of Republican voters reporting they wanted Pence at the head of the ticket in four years. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Trump both tied for fourth place at a dismal 9 percent. Sen. Ted Cruz earned 12 percent and Sen. Marco Rubio earned 11 percent ahead of the current Republican nominee.
Pence’s rise comes after he won the first Vice Presidential debate Tuesday against former Gov. Tim Kaine, fairing much better against his opponent than Trump himself did against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton during their first debate.
Although Pence gained support and voter recognition, with his favorability ratings gaining 7 percentage points after the debate, 84 percent of respondents reported didn’t change the way they would vote in November.
“Even though the VP debate had about half the audience of the presidential debate, both Mike Pence and Tim Kaine have seen their name recognition go up significantly,” Morning Consult co-founder and Chief Research Officer Kyle Dropp wrote in the accompanying statement.
“The news is much better for Pence, though. Not only do more voters think he won the debate, his favorability now sits 10 points higher than Kaine’s.”
The poll also asked respondents which candidate they thought was a role model, and President Barack Obama took the lead over both Clinton and Trump with 49 percent of voters saying that Obama was a good role model for children. Thirty-five percent reported the same of Clinton, and only 17 percent said the same of Trump.
The latest LA Times daily tracking poll revealed Friday that Trump led Clinton nationally, earning 46 percent compared to 44 percent for the Democratic nominee.
Morning Consult ran the survey from Oct. 5 through Oct. 6, and polled 1,989 registered voters. The poll carried a margin of error of 2 percentage points in either direction.
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