General Discussion

For all of his faults and Mob Boss personality, *rump's actual "work" was to play a celebrity rich guy who wasn't afraid to get dirty and "tell it like it is" for the rubes.
His name was out there, he was on TV, people knew the part he played. And that he seemed to be rich.
Vance has a rather short political life, doesn't have a good "leader" TV presence - moon-faced, rather greasy looking, speaking without much personal confidence in a nasal tone; he looks and acts like a low-level supervisor or sales manager.
And he's best known to the public for a rather whiney, "look at me working hard to succeed" book about the failures of the poor white trash he had to shit on to become rich.
A mediocre but clever White Man who fell into the right network of other mediocre but clever and Rich White Men to into a position of money and power. And he can't seem to shake that image.

Vance's base is the country club set, chasing access to power and monetary advantages. Trump's base is the "I wanna be special and know famous people" set, chasing after for the ego-boos of being part of the 'winning' team.
Which set of followers is larger and more likely to stick with their proxy leader when things aren't going well?