Tracking Attacks in the Vance-Walz Vice Presidential Debate

The New York Times analyzes patterns in Tuesday night's vice presidential debate between Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Sen. JD Vance of Ohio. We track candidates' speaking time, break it down by issue, and measure how many minutes each side spends on the attack.

Minutes speaking time and length of attacks

The debate is scheduled to last 90 minutes.

Attacking each other and the presidential candidates

During the debate, the microphones will not be muted, increasing the possibility of lively exchanges of ideas and insults.

The debate, taking place in New York City, is the only meeting between Mr. Walz and Mr. Vance. It will give the men their last prime-time opportunity to argue in defense of their ticket and act as attack dogs, a role often expected of running mates.

But the presidential candidates themselves did not shy away from personal attacks, as last month's debate showed.

With polls consistently showing a close race, both campaigns hope to use the debate as an opportunity to reach undecided voters just 35 days before Election Day.

Which topics are discussed the most?

A live measurement of how much time candidates talk about 15 key topics and how much time they spend attacking their competitor on that topic.

Comparing today's attacks with previous debates

Percentage of time candidates spend attacking each other's policies and character.