- The two vice presidential candidates face off in New York on Tuesday night.
- Democrat Tim Walz and Republican JD Vance meet for their only debate
Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz will meet Tuesday in their only vice presidential debate of the 2024 election, and they both have something to prove: that they’re not completely weird.
Walz may have used the term first to dismiss the entire Republican slate, but a JL Partners/DailyMail.com voter poll shows he has work to do, too.
When 1,000 likely voters were asked earlier this month who was the stranger of the two candidates, about 40 percent chose Senator Vance, 40.
More than a third, 35 percent, nominated Walz, the 60-year-old governor of Minnesota.
But in an election that will go down to the wire, decided by the slimmest of margins, there are signs that everything is on the line when the two running mates take the stage in New York on Tuesday night.
JL Partners surveyed 1,000 likely voters earlier this month to get their opinions on the two vice presidential candidates, Sen. JD Walz and Gov. Tim Walz.
About 25 percent of respondents said they simply didn’t know who the strangest candidate was.
That means each has the opportunity to speak directly to an audience that may not know much about Vance or Walz.
Our survey also found that Walz starts with another lead over Vance, who has attracted a series of negative headlines for resurfaced comments about the country being run by “childless cat ladies” and lamenting how car seat regulations had led to at low birth rates.
Walz starts with a favorability rating plus two (the difference between the percentage of people who approve of him and those who disapprove).
Vance is underwater, with a net favorability of minus six.
However, the Ohio senator has seen his rating improve over the past month (from minus eight), while Walz has trended in the wrong direction (from plus four).
The showdown, presented by CBS News, may not have the same risks as last month’s Trump-Harris showdown, but sparks could still fly.
Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz will meet Tuesday in their only vice presidential debate of the 2024 election, and both have something to prove.
Vance has mocked Walz’s military service record, while Walz has attacked Vance’s opposition to abortion and his focus on couples having children.
But each man’s key role will be to act as defender or attack dog for the candidate at the top of the ticket.
In the past, that meant a lot of heat but little light.
This could be different, according to James Johnson, co-founder of JL Partners.
“Normally vice presidential debates don’t matter, but the margins are so close that a landslide performance by one of the other candidates could actually win over some undecided voters, at least in theory,” he said.
“One undecided voter I spoke to in Pennsylvania, for example, was waiting for this debate to make a decision.”
Johnson said both candidates were less known to the public than Trump and Harris, which meant there could be more room for substance.
“I hope this is a debate in which we spend more time talking about the subsequent issues than the personalities,” he said.
The two can also be relied upon to talk about their roots in middle America. Both earned their spots on his ballot with something of a universal appeal: Vance as the son of a mother depressed by the country’s opioid epidemic and Walz with what his followers see as his “regular dad” and the “good Minnesota vibe.”