When Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz took the stage in New York Tuesday night’s vice presidential debatethis will be their first personal meeting.
But Vance and Waltz they had been biting each other from afar for weeks, playing the role of habitual attack dog on the other side’s tickets.
The stakes are unusually high for the CBS News-hosted 90-minute debate scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. local time. The race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump has been tight nationally and in battleground states. final vote. Considering that Trump did not agree to a second settlement with Harris, Vance vs. Walz may very well be the last debate before Election Day.
Polls also indicate that Vance has some work to do after making a rough first impression. Recently NBC News national survey45% of registered voters said they viewed Vance unfavorably, while 32% said they viewed him favorably, making him one of the least-favored vice presidential candidates in the past 30 years. Waltz, on the other hand, was rated positively by 40% and negatively by 33%. And with him unfounded claims Haitian immigrants eating pets and his A tendency to outrun Trump Vance has already garnered more political attention than any other vice presidential candidate since another Republican, then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, burst onto the scene in 2008.
With all that in mind, here are a few things to watch out for when Vance and Walz face off in New York:
Is Walz winning the expectations game?
When Harris touches Walz at a rally in Philadelphia in early Augusthe sounded enticing about the prospect of going up against Vance on the debate stage this fall.
“I can’t wait to argue with the guy,” Walz said, before hinting at a word vulgar false claim Made online about Vance. “That is, if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up.”
Less than two months later, Walz and his allies were trying to lower expectations for their own performance while emphasizing Vance’s Yale Law School pedigree while trying to elevate them for his opponent.
“Look, he is [a] Yale Law guy,” Walz said on MSNBC after the Trump-Harris debate last month. “I’m a public school teacher. So we know where he stands on this.”
“I will work hard,” he said. “I do it. “I fully expect that Senator Vance will come in well-prepared as a United States Senator, a Yale lawyer.”
It’s a tale as old as time: Candidates and their campaigns try to make their opponents sound louder in the run-up to the debates, trying to increase the impact of great speeches and lessen the power of disappointments. Case in point: The Trump team is also trying to raise expectations for Walz’s performance.
“Walz is very good at debates,” senior Trump adviser Jason Miller said on a call with reporters on Monday. “I want to do it again. Tim Walz is very good at debates. Really good. He has been a politician for nearly 20 years. He will prepare very well for tomorrow night.”
Race card
“Are you a racist?” Vance, smiling and pointing at the camera, asked in an announcement his campaign aired in the early days of his successful Senate bid two years ago.
The question was Vance’s attempt at rhetorical sarcasm — and it established a guiding thesis in his young political career: You can be angry about US immigration policy and border security without being racist.
Recently, Vance got involved disproved rumour About Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. This raises the possibility that on stage Tuesday, Waltz turned to her a version of Vance’s question: he racist?
Vance is prepared for such a scenario.
His advisers often talk about how he behaves A tense discussion situation in 2022When his Democratic opponent in the Senate ran, then-Rep. Tim Ryan accused him of espousing racist conspiracy theories. Vance quickly became triracial – his wife, Usha, is Indian-American. Vance complained that his family was “attacked online and in person by scumbags” because you are so desperate for political power that you would accuse me, the father of three beautiful biracial babies, of racism.
Usha Vance was among the small group that helped Vance prepare for the debate.
The battle for men and the fight for the future of masculinity
Both the Trump and Harris campaigns targets a group of voters who can make a difference On whether they win the White House in November: young people.
Both Walz and Vance have been at the forefront of this fight. For Walz, that included him and the Harris campaign heavily promoting his background as a high school football coach, hunter and Midwestern fixer-upper dad. For Vance, who will be the youngest person to serve as vice president in generations, it’s about his familiarity with many of the online spaces dominated by young men.
They offer competing visions of masculinitywhether it’s Walz’s view of traditional masculinity and his support for LGBTQ rights and his comfort talking about reproductive issues, or Vance’s views on masculinity and how he promotes family formation as outlined in his memoir. Each of them was attacked. Vans was labeled a freak, while Walz was mocked for his behavior.
“He’s not going to be a wildly gesticulating, misogynistic caricature who points at Kamala Harris at rallies and dances on stage,” Miller said in a Monday call.
Expect the concept of masculinity — and how Walz and Vance have different ideas about what that means — to be an undercurrent in their messaging.
Crossover appeals
Walz was known as a moderate congressman representing a swing district before establishing a more progressive persona as governor. As a vice presidential candidate, he presents himself as a quintessential Midwesterner who enjoys Middle American pastimes. The Harris campaign clearly sees him as someone who can speak to voters who have recently abandoned Democrats.
Vance isn’t far removed from his days as an anti-Trump pundit, but his hard turn toward Trump has remained unchanged. As Trump’s running mate, he has done little to woo voters who were fans of his 2016 best-selling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” and who Vance was once skeptical of Trump.
Walz is more likely to compete for the middle spot on Tuesday night. Vans further argues against any such attempt.
Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., who played Walz in Vance’s debate prep, compared his state’s governor to California’s liberal governor.
“Americans,” Emmer told reporters on the Trump campaign trail Monday, “are going to start seeing what we’ve known in Minnesota for a long time: Tim Walz is nothing but Gavin Newsom in a flannel shirt.”
Does Vance’s performance — good or bad — encourage Trump to change his mind about another debate?
Trump said he would not debate Harris again and noted that early voting had already begun. Meanwhile, Harris committed Debate with CNN on October 23.
But will Trump change his mind? Vance’s performance could play a big role in whether or not he does.
If Vance does well and generates positive campaign buzz, a jittery Trump may decide he wants another crack at the debate spotlight. If Vance performs poorly, Trump may feel he has no choice but to scramble again. Either way, it would be very un-Trumpy for him to be comfortable with his running mate having the last word.
Then whatever happens, whatever happens Trump announced on Monday he will offer analysis of the debate from the Truth Social account, eager to get Vance’s attention.