Why the Vance-Walz debate could get messy

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The likely lone debate between the vice presidential candidates on Tuesday night could seem like a Midwestern showdown for the ages, with the junior senator from Ohio expressing his antagonistic vision for a new anti-U.S. conservatism shit Seriousness of the Minnesota Governor. But in reality, the evening will be a high-stakes summation of the culture wars that define this national competition, with nasty jabs at “childless cat ladies,” tampons in boys' bathrooms and pet-hunting Haitians flying across the stage right from the start.

With voting already underway in some states – including Minnesota – and no further televised events scheduled before Election Day on November 5, this undercard debate is taking on a level of importance not seen in modern times. Both Vance and Walz remain unknown figures for much of America; According to Pew Research Center polls, a quarter of voters recently told pollsters they literally haven't heard from Trump and Harris' vice presidents. Vance was slightly better known than Walz, although Vance had a higher number of unfavorable votes among those who expressed an opinion. Tuesday's event – hosted by CBS News and the other networks plan to broadcast simultaneously – is expected to be the rare landmark vice-presidential debate.

Polls at the start of the 90-minute session show a race that appears relatively stable. Vice President Kamala Harris, seeking an unexpected promotion after President Joe Biden decided to skip his ongoing re-election bid, appears to have stabilized the so-called Blue Wall of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Former President Donald Trump, seeking an almost unprecedented return to power, appears to have secured even the slightest advantage in Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina, while Nevada – like all seven battleground states, if we're honest – is anyone's game stays gasping.

Because of this, both vice presidential races have been scrutinized in ways that haven't seemed necessary since the election of Sarah Palin in 2008. Vance, who was elected to the Senate in 2022, has a relatively short record in public life; No one expects a first-time lawmaker in the minority party to have much of an impact. Walz, a former House member who moved home to run his state, has a somewhat larger track record, but one that is not well known outside the Upper Midwest.

Sure, Vance can point to his past populism and advocacy for East Palestine, Ohio, after an epic train derailment just days after his arrival in Washington. His work in the technology sector has drawn impressive approval in Silicon Valley, even though legislation he co-sponsored on children's online safety passed the Senate and he missed the vote.

And Walz can point to his state's universal free meal program for students and its success in passing universal gun background checks and enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution. However, he has not yet been able to fully fend off attacks on his decision last year to pass a law requiring all students in fourth grade and above to have access to menstrual products in school toilets. The bill faced little public opposition at the time, but conservatives pounced on it as soon as Harris tapped Walz, calling the governor “Tampon Tim” and falsely arguing that he had required public schools to put menstrual products in all boys' bathrooms .

For this reason, Vance and Walz each informed themselves of their rival's record, in keeping with their counterparts' established role as attack machines. For Vance, that means spending a lot of time navigating Walz's voting history in the House and his time leading Minnesota, including the period during which the Covid-19 pandemic and unrest in Minneapolis followed the death of George Floyd came together at the hands of the police. The audience should expect Vance to accuse Walz of waiting too long to send in the National Guard to restore order. To help him prepare, Vance has assigned House Majority Leader Tom Emmer, a Republican from Minnesota, to act as Walz in the debate preparation sessions.

And Walz has numerous previous comments from Vance, including many from before his administration. Some of them were extremely critical of Trump, as TIME brought up in an interview with Vance in 2021, leading to some of the most underrated statements Mea culpa in sometime: “I'm not just a flip-flopper, I'm a flip-flopper on Trump.” Vance has questioned why people without children have a say in schools, and his dismissal as “childless cat ladies” has become a substitute for perceived disrespect toward voters who haven't given birth — Harris included. For his part, Walz has taken aim at Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a former mayor of South Bend, Indiana.

In this race, even political positions, authenticity and sentiment play a role. But the real reason the debate prep sessions focused on this caliber of criticism is because both campaigns see the opportunity to turn the other side into a parody of itself, a seedy example of a toxic culture war that no one can who leads both sides can really win. Vance will rail against “wokeness”; Walz hit the spot while shadowing Harris' rose ceremony when he called the GOP ticket “weird.”

In a way, Vance and Walz have a similar mission: to make the other inedible. It's not elegant. It's anything but arrogant or even remotely weird. But it's what the strategists preparing them believe will be the deadliest move at this moment, when voters are just beginning to adjust to the rest of the map. With Election Day still five weeks away, this is not the time for niceties, but rather for small things. Voters say they hate the negativity – the advertising, the rhetoric, the innuendo and the heavier slander. But here's the thing: usually it works. The culture wars are stoking fear, and fear is sending people to polling stations. Both campaigns get it, and voters just need to brace themselves for this final push.

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