VP debates rarely matter – the Walz v Vance conflict is different

Democrat Tim Walls and Republican J.T. Vance will meet in New York City on Tuesday night for a single vice-presidential debate.

While the stakes are typically low in these kinds of running-mate face-offs — the undercard of the president’s main event — this one could be different.

In a tight race that could be decided by tens of thousands of votes in a few states, every opportunity to generate positive attention and political momentum is precious.

At the very least, this debate will be a fascinating contrast between two men with very different styles and political beliefs and unique strategies for winning the White House.

At the start of the Republican National Convention and a day after her assassination, Donald Trump announced his pick for Vance in July.

The former president was high in the polls, and his election of the 40-year-old Ohio senator was seen not only as a play on the white working class in the industrial Midwest — a region whose demographics are key. battlefield – but also as a way to establish his political legacy.

Unlike Trump’s first vice president, Mike Pence, Vance is an ideological relative whose focus on trade and immigration aligns with Trump’s key political priorities.

If Vance had been the front-runner to be Trump’s running mate, Walls’ path to the Democratic number-two spot was highly unlikely. After Joe Biden abandoned his re-election bid, Vice President Kamala Harris stepped in as the standard bearer, and shortly thereafter began searching for her ticket.

Wallace, the governor of Minnesota, was not a leading contender for the job, but his viral appearances on television, mocking Republicans as “weird” and defending liberal policies in moderate-friendly language won over Harris.

On the campaign trail, both tried to put their political skills to work.

Vance is polished and practical — a former Silicon Valley venture capitalist whose Ivy League pedigree belies his rural Appalachian roots. Walls was a high school teacher turned politician with a penchant for folk Midwestern humor.

Vance has been a frequent advocate for the Trump campaign on major media news programs. He also mobilized potential supporters in rural Midwestern battleground states as part of the Trump campaign’s strategy to engage sympathetic voters who had not turned out in previous elections.

Last week in Traverse City, Michigan, Vance delivered his standard stump speech, which focuses on immigration, the economy and trade.

“We’re going to pursue some common sense tax and economic policies,” he told a crowd of a few thousand cheering supporters gathered at a local fairground. “We’d rather do it with American labor than foreign slave labor.”

Although many of the rally participants didn’t know much about Vance before he was elected vice president, they said they like what they’ve heard so far, even as Vance has often dabbled in controversy. He spread false rumors that Haitian immigrants were stealing and eating pets in Ohio. A recent example.

The Democratic Party has been a regular fixture in rural areas of battleground states — often appearing in traditionally more conservative places. As a former high school football coach, he sought to play up his background and connections to America’s most popular sport. On Saturday, he was at the Michigan-Minnesota college football game, which was played in front of a crowd of 110,000.

When Harris introduced Walls as his vice presidential pick at a Philadelphia rally in early August, he repeatedly referred to him as “Coach Walls” — and highlighted his background as a high school educator.

Democrats hope his outspoken, salt-and-salt appeal can be made Outside of major metropolitan areas, the Republican Party cut into the margins.

“In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make,” Walls said in Philadelphia. “Even if we don’t make the same choice ourselves, there is one golden rule: Mind your own business.”

During Tuesday night’s debate, Vance is likely to continue hammering Democrats on the economy, immigration and crime — areas that polls show favor Trump and Republicans.

He could blame Walls for being slow to react to the sometimes violent protests in Minnesota following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police and highlight some of the more controversial liberal policies Walls enacted as governor, including on transgender rights.

He could also point to the sometimes contradictory statements of Walls, who served in the Minnesota National Guard.

Walls could counter that by highlighting Vance’s past controversial statements — his derisive remarks about Ohio Haitians and childless Democratic women being “childless cat ladies.”

He may also note Vance’s connections to people who oversaw Plan 2025, the proposed governing agenda put forth by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation. He is sure to focus on social issues where Democrats are strong, such as health care, the environment and, most importantly, abortion rights.

Both had relatively low profiles in national politics before their respective elevations to the presidency. Vance, who served less than two years in the U.S. Senate, is best known for his best-selling memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. Walls has a long political record, having served as governor and as a congressman from a rural part of Minnesota, but he has never been in the top position of party leadership.

Both men will get a chance to introduce themselves to millions of Americans for the first time Tuesday night — and their performance will reflect on the judgment and decision-making of the presidential candidates who elected them.

Vance’s focus may be particularly sharp because if Trump wins, he will be the oldest person ever elected president. Vance could use the opportunity to provide ideological depth and detail to Trump’s conservative populism, as he did during his July Republican convention speech.

For Walls, it’s an opportunity not only to help Americans learn more about him as a candidate, but also to help them learn more about a Democratic ticket that didn’t exist two months ago — polls show many Americans are still undecided. If he can do that in a way that appeals to moderate and independent voters — his strengths — good for the Harris camp.

Typically, the vice-presidential debate takes place in the middle of a series of presidential debates — a break between candidate clashes that really matters.

However, with no more presidential debates scheduled this year, the running-mate face-off will be the last chance for American voters to directly contrast the two tickets before they go to the polls.