US vice presidential candidates J.D. Vance and Tim Walz will face off Tuesday in a debate that promises to be a feisty battle to win over voters in middle America, who could decide the cliffhanger 2024 election.
The combative Vance, 40, shares former president Donald Trump’s gift for courting controversy, whether by smearing Democrats as “childless cat ladies,” spreading bogus stories about pet-eating migrants or questioning his rival’s military record.
Walz, 60, is a folksy Midwestern former teacher and high school football coach who was chosen at lightning speed by Vice President Kamala Harris after his attacks on Vance and Trump as “weird” went viral.
But what the pair have in common is that their bosses are counting on them to reach out to voters in the blue-collar US heartland and help propel them to the Oval Office.
The clash should make for good television, even if VP debates themselves rarely move the dial in elections, said Thomas Whalen, an associate professor of social sciences at Boston University.
The debate hosted by the CBS network in New York at 9:00 pm Tuesday (0100 GMT Wednesday) could also be the last major televised face-off before the election.
Trump has refused to take part in a second debate with Harris, after pundits and polls agreed the Democrat won their first on September 10.
‘Trap’
A little extra spice could come from the fact that Vance’s and Walz’s microphones will be live throughout, allowing them to cut in on their rivals. Trump and Harris had their mics muted when it was not their turn to talk.
The pressure on Tuesday could be biggest on Vance, the youthful senator whom Trump picked in June in the hope he could reach out to his blue-collar base.
But Walz is sure to attack him over a series of controversies linked to previous comments on women and abortion.
For Walz, it has been a heady ascent since Harris picked him shortly after her own sudden replacement of President Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee.
His earthy charm, the famed “Minnesota nice” politeness made famous by the 1996 Coen brothers film “Fargo,” has made him a hit with Democrats.
But in the end, the debate will likely come down to a clash of personalities.
Polls show Vance trails Walz in terms of popularity with voters, and at one point he had some of the lowest ratings of any vice presidential nominee in US history.
With AFP
