Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) speaks to reporters in the spin room after the CNN presidential debate in Atlanta, Georgia in June 2024.
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Freshman Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio will make his debate debut Tuesday night alongside Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. The former venture capitalist and author has had some setbacks and stumbles since former President Donald Trump selected him as his running mate on the Republican ticket.
In less than two years as a senator, he has become a household name in Ohio. But there is only one Democrat in the country who has ever debated Vance on stage.
That person is Tim Ryan, a former Youngstown-area congressman who defeated Vance on the back of Trump’s support after Vance won the seven-way Republican primary in 2022.
“I think you’re going to see someone being very aggressive in trying to frame the Harris Waltz ticket as something super extreme and out of line. They’re going to be held accountable for everything and if they win, the world will end,” Ryan said of Vance on the debate stage. “It’s going to hurt him that much because he has one audience and that’s Donald Trump.”
Vance’s transition from Trump critic to cheerleader has been well-documented, but his transition may still be a subject of debate.
Ryan also cited some of Vance’s other controversial statements, including false and racist rumors he repeated about legal Haitian immigrants in Springfield and negative comments about childless women. He said there was a possibility that it would surface.
The debate will be an opportunity for both Mr. Vance and his Democratic opponent, Mr. Walz, to present their policy positions to a broader audience of Americans. That’s because most people know less about Mr. Vance than his presidential campaign partner.
Vance, in particular, will need to overcome his low favorability rating.
“I don’t know if that’s who he really is or who he really thinks he is at this point,” Ryan said. “He’s really uncomfortable, and he also has very thin skin, so if you hit him in the right spot, he can fly off the handle a little bit.”
Ryan added that Walz should be prepared to “check the facts in real time” during his debate with Vance. CBS News, which hosts the debate, said it was up to the candidates, not the moderators, to call out inaccurate statements.
appeal to moderates
The Ohio Republican Party congratulated Vance on his selection as Trump’s running mate. Republican strategist Mark Weaver also said Vance is appealing to moderates who may not have made up their minds yet.
Weaver, a consultant who has worked with a wide range of Republicans, from local officials in Ohio to former President Ronald Ronald I am impressed by his eagerness to skillfully answer all of the reporters’ questions.” Reagan.
Weaver said Vance has honed his communication skills over the past few years through interviews and rallies. And Weaver said that no matter what happens in November, Vance’s future is “a bolt from the blue. He could either become vice president and president of the Senate or become a one-term senator with a higher profile than his colleagues who will be elected in 2022.” It will happen,” he said.
However, some Republicans dissatisfied with trump. At least two Republican county party chairs President Trump resigned after2020 Election.
One of them went all the way across the aisle.
Chris Gibbs, who currently leads the Democratic Party in northwestern Shelby County, said, “As someone who came to the party as local Democratic Party chairman after spending 20 years in local Republican government, I would like to express my appreciation for J.D. Vance on the debate stage. My expectations for it could not be higher.” Oh.
In 2020, Trump won the county with 81% of the vote.
“I predict that Mr. Vance will spend 90 minutes asserting that traditional Republican core principles such as diplomacy, statesmanship, personal responsibility, and compassion have all but disappeared from this once serious party. “I’m doing it,” Gibbs said.
As a farmer who manages both crops and livestock, Gibbs said he doesn’t expect Vance to launch personal attacks on Walz, but rather that both candidates will talk about immigration, trade, tariffs, biofuels and the farm bill. He said he wanted to hear him speak.
