People in this thread praise JD Vance, but knew little about him until Trump picked him for VP.
JD Vance wrote a bestselling memoir in 2016 detailing his entire life
Yes. Less than 1 million people likely read his book before he was selected for VP.
2016 was at the time he joined Peter Theil's circle of influence and power. Also at that time JD Vance called Trump an "idiot" and "reprehensible" and compared Trump to Hitler.
which was turned into a major movie directed by Ron Howard and nominated for two academy awards.
The film released Nov 2020 election season in a limited theatrical run with negative reviews (which lowers viewership). The film released exactly 2 years before his Ohio Senate run. I'm sure some people in Ohio watched the film in 2022 to learn more about who they might vote for.
According to
Variety the day after Vance was selected for VP the film was viewed 163,836 times. 1,179% more than the day before (≈12,809), when he was merely just being considered.
If each day 12,809 new people watched the film for the 6 months leading up to his VP selection 2.3 million people would have watched the film. I believe this is an overestimation, because it is more likely the view numbers ramped up as rumor grew.
Put together the book and film were consumed by roughly 3 million people. Optimistically you can presume the 4 million people who voted in the Ohio Senate race were informed about him. That optimistically combines to 7 million people if you ignore double/triple counting the book/film/OH voters.
Of the 150 million voters (or 200 million eligible voters) how many knew more than "a little" about JD Vance before he was selected for VP? 5% of people?
Hell, how many of the 200 million eligible voters knew more than "a little" about him on election day?
RFK Jr "came out of nowhere" in the 2024 cycle.
No he fucking didn't. He has had a long public career and was being considered for positions back in the Obama administration.
If you asked people in 2021 who would be running for President, how many would list RFK Jr? His announcement to run was not an obvious foregone conclusion.
Before he announced his run for president, what percentage of 200 million Americans knew RFK Jr's political stances or that he would be a possible choice for president in the next election?
That is what in mean by "come out of nowhere"
Right now. What percentage of people in America know who George P. Bush is? Sure, they would guess Bush family, but would they know much else? How many would predict a presidential run by him in 2028? Is it an obvious foregone conclusion that he will run for president in 2028?
I have a feeling you are classifying people as unknown dark horses just because you personally hadn't heard of them in the news before.
Wrong. I am a politics wonk.
