Tim Walz and JD Vance will face off on the debate stage Tuesday evening in a matchup that both their parties are hoping will demonstrate their vice-presidential candidate’s ability to connect with voters in battleground states that will play a critical role in deciding the U.S. election in November.
The debate, hosted by CBS News in New York, will kick off at 9 p.m. Eastern.
“They will both be trying to connect with those key Midwestern voters, that’s part of why each one of them was chosen,” said Matthew Lebo, a specialist in U.S. politics at Western University in London, Ont.
“Thinking about especially male voters in those key Midwestern swing states: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.”
Those states swung Republican when former president Donald Trump won the 2016 election, and in 2020 they helped put President Joe Biden in the White House.
Tuesday’s matchup could have an outsized impact. Polls have shown Trump and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris locked in a close contest, giving added weight to anything that can sway voters on the margins, including the impression left by the vice presidential candidates. It also might be the last debate of the campaign, with the Harris and Trump teams failing to agree on another meeting.
The role of a presidential running mate is typically to serve as an attack dog for the person at the top of the ticket, arguing against the opposing presidential candidate and their proxy on stage. Both Vance and Walz have embraced that role.
Walz, the 60-year-old Democratic governor of Minnesota, has embraced his folksy, plain-spoken demeanour since he joined the ticket earlier this summer. He’s leaned into his Midwestern roots and the title “coach Walz” from his former football coach days.
The strategy has seen him garner high favourability in polls but he will be facing a formidable opponent in Vance, the Republican senator from Ohio.
The 40-year-old has become a mainstay on cable news shows since he was announced as Donald Trump’s running mate in July.
Formerly a Trump critic, Vance was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022 after becoming one of the former president’s loudest supporters.
Before entering the political sphere, Vance rose to fame with the 2016 publication of his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
The Republican campaign released a video ahead of the debate to show Vance’s “hillbilly energy.” In the video, which features photos from his childhood, Vance talked about jobs disappearing from communities and the sense of hopelessness that left behind.
Both men are expected to play on their working-class narratives during the debate to give credibility to their party’s plans for the economy and inflation.
Political experts have said Harris dominated the presidential debate last month by prodding Trump into tirades that strayed far from his intended goals of focusing on immigration and the economy.
Aaron Kall, the director of debate for the University of Michigan, said it’s unlikely Vance will fall for the same strategy, and he expects Tuesday night’s debate will lean more into policy.
But that doesn’t mean there won’t be barbs.
Walz was given credit for coining the label “weird” to describe his Republican opponents and the attack has stuck to Vance, with numerous viral videos and memes targeting the senator’s past comments and encounters with voters.
“They really couldn’t be more diametrically opposed, kind of like Harris and Trump,” Kall said.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of fireworks, given their personalities.”
—With files from the Associated Press