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Walz-ing off the stage

October 11, 2024 at 4:00:00 PM

Taimur Rehman '25

On Tuesday, October 1, the Vice Presidential debate took place in New York. Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance, a Yale Law Graduate, former Marine, author of Hillbilly Elegy, silicon-valley-groomed venture-capitalist, and current U.S. senator from the state of Ohio faced Tim Walz, the Democratic Vice Presidential nominee. Walz is a former National Guardsman, schoolteacher, U.S. representative, and currently serves as the governor of Minnesota. 

Vice Presidential debates are rarely a highlight of the presidential race, but this year, they represent something new. Donald Trump is seventy-eight years old, and within the next decade, the Republican Party will face a political landscape in which Donald Trump ceases to be the “face” of the Party, and voters understand this. This debate was important because it offered an opportunity to see one of the future faces of the Republican Party and for those less inclined towards Kamala Harris, to see what her running mate has to offer in comparison. I watched the debate in nearly its entirety and it is clear to me that Vance succeeded at making Tim Walz appear nervous and lackluster, all the while polishing his own image. 

JD Vance entered that stage on a mission, which was to convince the world that what he and Donald Trump had to offer was not that unreasonable and that American lives would be better under a Trump-Vance administration. Tim Walz, on the other hand, lacked any mission. He did get a few hits on Vance regarding abortion and election interference. Still, during the debate, Vance appeared to be one step ahead. The calm and effective Yale-educated lawyer, throughout the evening, may have convinced undecided voters that a Trump presidency was not all that they feared it to be. In contrast, Walz failed to land many attacks on Vance or Trump and had several of his own slip-ups, including looking frightened, mistakenly saying that he “was friends with school shooters,” calling himself a “knucklehead,” and poor, repeated, attempts to circle back to a handful of prepared ideas. 

When given the opportunity to land a punch, Walz failed to connect. Throughout the debate, Vance spoke in a manner that reversed many of his past statements on abortion, immigrants, and the election. But it did not matter, because Tim Walz, excepting a select moment in which he called Vance’s answer to “Did President Trump win the 2020 election?” a “damning non-answer,” failed to make points on Vance’s previous comments. Instead, he ceded several arguments to “common ground," rambled on about points, and referenced Taylor Swift to close out the debate. 

Tim Walz, regardless of how the media may frame it, left the debate appearing to be a state governor out of place on the national stage. JD Vance left as a man no longer seen as weird and unknown but as a calm, educated, and civil politician with a rags-to-riches background and care for Americans. Now, as her lead in several key states ahead of November tightens, the question remains: Is Kamala Harris regretting her pick for Vice President?

Copyright 2024

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