Rarely in politics does a leader become more popular the more time he spends in the spotlight. But that appears to be the phenomenon currently underway with Vice President JD Vance.

According to an Atlas Insights poll out late last month, 51 percent of Americans say they have a “positive image” of Vance, compared to 48 percent who say they have a “negative image” of the former U.S. Senator, businessman, and best-selling author. That figure represents a dramatic increase from the first iteration of the Atlas poll, conducted in July 2024 shortly after Vance was selected as President Donald Trump’s running mate, which found that just 29 percent of Americans had a positive image of Vance while 42 percent had a negative image.

Given the relentless smear campaign Democrats and the media deployed against Vance over the course of last year’s election cycle, including an effort to brand him as “weird” and racist, it seemed at the time that Vance could become a serious liability for the Republican ticket. Indeed, by September of last year, 49 percent of poll respondents told Atlas they had a negative image of Vance, while 36 percent said they had a positive image of him.

But then, something unusual happened – Vance hit the media circuit and began surging in popularity. By October, the percentage of Americans who said they had a positive and negative image of Vance had pulled even at 47 percent. In January, those numbers remained deadlocked at 49 percent and 49 percent. Now, he has a net-positive image rating.