The debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance highlights stark differences

Even if the malice on display between Walz and Vance wasn’t felt Tuesday, the intensity of that campaign — and the risks to the country on issues like the economy, abortion rights and climate change — shaped the entire proceedings.

While the two vice-presidential candidates elicited strong positive reactions in their own parties and strong negative reactions in the other parties, both seemed to understand that their essential role in the debate was to highlight those interests, appeal to their vice-presidential candidates, and attack the other party’s standard-bearers .

In the opening minutes, Walz repeatedly attacked former President Donald Trump, from his rambling debate appearance last month to comments from many of his former aides who questioned his character. Vance, meanwhile, responded in kind, going after Vice President Kamala Harris’ record and attempting to portray her as the race’s de facto incumbent who has failed to address the problems she supposedly wanted to solve.

One of the most contentious segments of the evening came when, when asked about Trump’s refusal to accept his defeat in the 2020 election, Vance also refused to call Trump lost, while also condemning the former president’s unprecedented efforts to ensure the peaceful transfer of power stop, downplayed.

The governor eventually pushed for Vance himself, to no avail. “That’s a damn non-answer,” Walz said as Vance tried to deflect by claiming Harris had censored speech during the coronavirus pandemic.

The vice presidential debate, usually an afterthought, became more important because of the dramatic turmoil in the campaign. For one thing, it’s unlikely that Harris and Trump will debate again, with barely a month left until November 5th. President Biden’s exit from the race and Harris’ rise to the top of the Democratic ticket underscore the importance of the number two role, particularly on the GOP side, since if Trump wins, he would be the oldest person ever to become president .

The risk for vice presidential candidates is that a great performance might not get many votes, while a poor performance could weigh on the overall result – something neither candidate could afford ahead of a presidential race that polls show will be decided by even narrower majorities than four votes could be years ago.

The senator from Ohio appeared increasingly elegant throughout the debate, cleverly avoiding answering questions and even trying to portray Trump’s weaknesses, such as the lack of a health care plan, as strengths. He refrained from making negative attacks on Walz and used the opportunity to weave in stories about his well-known rise from poverty to the Senate – a stark departure for a candidate who has often appeared combative in previous press appearances.

Walz, meanwhile, often misspelled. At one point he said, apparently at random, that he was friends with “school shooters”; At another point, when the governor was pressed on CNN to report that he said he was in China during the Tiananmen Square massacre when he wasn’t, he had no answer. “I’ve been a jerk sometimes,” Walz said, before admitting that he “worded something wrong there.”

Before the debate, both camps, as usual, praised their rivals’ abilities and downplayed expectations of their own performance. Walz is considered a talented communicator, but was never known in Minnesota as a particularly strong debater; Vance isn’t a natural, but he enjoys debate and is quick on his feet.

Both kept a low profile in the days leading up to the debate, while Walz gathered with allies in Michigan to prepare for the debate – including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who played Vance – and Vance prepared at home in Cincinnati. Walz’s old colleague in the Minnesota delegation, House Majority Leader Tom Emmer, acted as a sparring partner for Vance.

But the Ohio senator may have arrived on the debate stage in sharper fighting form than his Democratic rival: He has conducted a series of controversial interviews with mainstream media outlets in recent months, sometimes appearing on more than one high-profile Sunday news program each week. He had already been repeatedly pressed about likely debate topics, such as his past dislike of Trump and his controversial comments attacking “childless cat ladies.”

Walz rose to the forefront of vice presidential candidates in part because of his appeal in television interviews, but since his election he has not conducted a single individual interview with a national mainstream media, television or radio station. His only appearance at such a venue came in August, when he and Harris sat down for a joint interview on CNN in which Dana Bash pressed Walz over misrepresentations of his military career. Even with reporters who were on the campaign trail with him, the governor rarely spoke openly.

The debate produced moments that will shape each candidate — none of whom are nationally known — both positively and negatively for millions of voters. But each ended with a simple final message: vote not for her, but for her vice president.

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Sam Brodey can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @sambrodey.