JD Vance needs to focus on policy rather than personality during his upcoming debate against Tim Walz, a Trump campaign adviser has said.
Ahead of the pair’s Tuesday night encounter, Republicans are hoping Donald Trump’s running mate will be able to shape the discussion around the record of the Biden–Harris administration. While vice presidential debates seldom have an impact on the outcome of presidential elections, the CBS-hosted event is likely to be the last encounter between the two tickets before the November vote, and may be one of the GOP’s last high-profile opportunities to strike a policy contrast with the Democrats.
Speaking to Fox News on Tuesday morning, Trump campaign senior advisor Danielle Alvarez said that success for Vance would lie in reminding voters about Kamala Harris’s record over the past three and a half years.
“The main focus – which I know JD is going to hit a home run on – is talking about those policies that voters care about,” Alvarez said, arguing that Tim Walz “is going to have a hard time doing that.”
“They’ve been here for three and a half years,” she added. “They have failed on the economy, they have failed on inflation, they have failed on the border.”
Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaks during a campaign rally Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Newtown, Pa. Vance will face off against Tim Walz on Tuesday evening, in a debate hosted by CBS.
Laurence Kesterson/AP Photo
“How does he defend Kamala Harris’s record? When we know in rallies he’s said: ‘We can’t sustain this anymore,’ she continued.
Alvarez appeared to refer to a recent rally in Pennsylvania, during which the Minnesota governor said: “We can’t afford four more years of this.” While his remarks were about gun violence in the U.S., and not the policies of the Biden-Harris administration, it has been seized on as pointing toward the incumbent administration’s bipartisan unpopularity.
Her advice echoes that given by William McGurn, chief speechwriter for George W. Bush from 2006 to 2008, in a Monday op-ed for The Wall Street Journal.
“Mr. Vance has an opportunity to do what Mr. Trump largely didn’t in his Sept. 10 debate with Ms. Harris,” McGurn wrote. “That is, to keep the focus on the unpopular policies of the incumbent administration.”
Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speaks to a gathered crowd of supporters during a campaign rally at the Highmark Amphitheater on September 5, 2024 in Erie, Pennsylvania. A recent CBS poll found that voters preferred Walz over Vance in terms of authenticity, honest, competence and shared values.
Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
A focus on policy, rather than personal critiques, would be a strong bet for Vance, given that voters view him less favorably than his Democrat counterpart.
In its latest polling aggregate, FiveThirtyEight showed Walz holding a nearly four-point lead over Vance when it came to achieving a favorable opinion from voters: 40.1 percent to 36.4 percent, respectively.
Similarly, a late September poll from CBS found that registered voters siding with Walz over Vance in terms of competence, authenticity, honesty and shared values.
Nevertheless, personal attacks, to which both candidates have proven themselves partial, will not be absent from the debate.
Alvarez told Fox that Vance will also try to brandish his working class roots and remind voters of his industrial Midwest upbringing.
“You’re going to hear a lot about his background and his turbulent upbringing and his ability to achieve the American dream, She said. “And his desire to work with president Trump to make that American dream achievable to everyone else across the country.”
Vance and Walz will square off on Tuesday evening at 9 p.m., according to CBS News, who have tasked Evening News host Norah O’Donnell and foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan with moderating the encounter.
While vice presidential debates rarely make the difference in U.S. presidential elections, the toss-up race between Harris and Trump means that both camps will be watching the event with keen interest.
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