Vice presidential nominees Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz both went into Tuesday’s debate knowing that their contest, traditionally an afterthought in presidential politics, was going to command the nation’s focus in unusual fashion.
Over 43 million viewers were treated to a calm and more substantive conversation about national political issues. Vance and Walz’s showdown was the highest-rated vice presidential debate since Joe Biden and Sarah Palin squared off in 2008, according to Nielsen.
Rather than focusing explicitly on one another, the two candidates aimed most of their criticisms at the other’s running mate. Walz warned about Republican nominee Donald Trump’s policies on abortion, the economy, and immigration. At the same time, Vance repeatedly reminded the audience that Kamala Harris is the current Vice President and is at least partially responsible for the Biden administration’s policy failures.
Mainstream media outlets conducted post-debate polling to learn how voters viewed the debate performances.
A CNN/SSRS poll, in particular, concluded that “51% of viewers said that Vance did the better job, with 49% picking Walz,” and prior to the debate, those polled felt Walz “held the advantage” and was expected to outperform Vance 54 percent to 45 percent.
YouGov/CBS News poll, which surveyed six percent more Democrats than Republicans, saw both candidate’s favorability increase post-debate, with Vance’s rising 9 percent, while Walz’s rose 8 percent.
Polling by Focaldata/POLITICO showed heavy partisan results, with the only unique takeaway being that independents chose Walz over Vance in both debate performance and better fitness for the office.
J.L. Partners/DailyMail.com polled 801 likely voters, with 50 percent saying Vance won the debate and 7 percent were unsure who was victorious.
Between these four major snap polls, where 3,530 likely voters were surveyed, an average of 48 percent favor Vance’s performance to the 46 percent that favored Walz.
Unsurprisingly, national political figures on both sides took to the media spin room to rally support behind their respective party nominees.
“This was an overwhelming, dominating performance by JD Vance,” said Rep. Elise Stefanik (R–N.Y.), in the spin room.
When asked after the debate which candidate was victorious, Sen. Ben Ray Lujan (D–N.M.) said the winner was “Governor Tim Walz, standing there in a strong way, defending our democracy.”
The Nov. 5 Election Day is less than five weeks away and early voting has already started in some states.
There are no further presidential debates scheduled for this election cycle.
The Associated Press contributed to this reporting.