'Cat ladies' vs. 'weird': Vance, Walz to square off in sole VP debate

By James Oliphant, Stephanie Kelly and Gram Slattery

(Reuters) - One vice presidential candidate is a best-selling author who coined the term “childless cat ladies” to disparage Democrats and latched onto a made-up story about immigrants eating pets. 

The other is a folksy former high school football coach who has faced questions about his military service and has called his Republican opponents “weird,” a label that quickly stuck. 

Both are white guys from the U.S. Midwest who claim to understand what Americans in the heartland really want but are sharply divided over policy.

When Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz collide in a vice presidential debate next week, both will seek to fill in the basic sketches that the American public has seen of them so far while also making the case for their respective presidential nominees, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. 

Typically, a vice presidential debate is viewed as the undercard, a clash largely overlooked by voters. 

But Walz and Vance's barbs have attracted outsized attention, and voters might be more interested than usual to see them go head-to-head on Tuesday in their only scheduled debate before the Nov. 5 election.

With no further presidential debates planned, the V.P. square off also will give both men the opportunity to make persuasive closing arguments on behalf of their campaigns - just as early voting ramps up across the country.

"Ultimately their most important job is to be an effective surrogate and proxy for their respective campaigns," said Aaron Kall, an expert on presidential debates at the University of Michigan.

Harris was widely viewed as getting the better of Trump in their Sept. 10 debate. That may put more pressure on Vance, 40, a pugnacious first-time U.S. senator from Ohio who Trump chose to stoke his right-wing base, to turn in a strong performance. 

Walz, 60, the governor of Minnesota and a longtime member of Congress who Harris chose in part to broaden her appeal to independents in states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, has derided Vance as a "weird," out-of-touch Ivy League-educated wonk.

Vance, author of the bestselling memoir "Hillbilly Elegy," likely will have to explain his willingness to play up a fictional story of Haitian immigrants eating household pets in Springfield, Ohio, as well as his hardline stance on abortion, including his support in the past for a national ban.

Walz likely will be pushed on how he, as governor, handled the riots in Minneapolis in 2020 after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police.

DEBATE STRATEGY

One of Vance's goals will be to portray Walz as a leftist masquerading as a moderate, according to one of the people involved in the Republican's debate preparations. A self-proclaimed champion of "progressive values," Walz as governor made school meals free and expanded paid leave.

Vance will also likely criticize Walz's military record, the person said.

Vance, who served in the Marine Corps and was a public affairs officer during a six-month stint in Iraq, has accused Walz of leaving the Army National Guard to avoid getting deployed to Iraq and of falsely suggesting he served in combat.

Walz, who served in the Guard for 24 years, retired to run for Congress in 2005 and has pushed back at any suggestion that he left his comrades in the lurch. 

The Harris campaign has acknowledged he misspoke in a 2018 video in which he referenced "weapons of war that I carried into war." Walz never served in a combat zone.

“It’s absolutely fair to ask Walz about how he painted his military background because he has been very careful on how he has answered this,” said Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist in Washington. 

But Bonjean said Vance should keep his focus on how “another Trump presidency can help voters with solutions to their kitchen table issues in order to attract independent voters in toss-up states.”

Paul Begala, a former top aide to Democratic President Bill Clinton, said it would be a “rookie mistake” for Vance to go hard at Walz because voters choose based on the presidential candidate, not their No. 2. 

“Even if Vance were to destroy Walz, it won’t make a difference," Begala said.

DEBATE PREP

In contrast to Trump's debate preparations, which largely consisted of unstructured policy chats among key advisers, Vance has opted for a more traditional preparation strategy, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.

He tapped Tom Emmer, a U.S. representative from Minnesota, to stand in for Walz during mock debates, the source said.

Vance also has been getting peppered with questions in separate sessions with his wife, Usha Vance, and senior Trump aide Jason Miller in attendance, that person said. 

Walz, too, has been working with a stand-in, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a small-town Midwesterner like Vance, according to a source who asked to remain anonymous to discuss strategy.

Other key players in Walz’s prep include Rob Friedlander and Zayn Siddique, who both worked in the Biden administration’s White House, the source said. Siddique helped prepare Harris for her debate against Trump.

Vance, who likes to discuss the minutiae of policy, may have to work to connect with the public as polls show he is viewed more unfavorably than Walz. A Pew Research Center poll this month showed 34% of Americans view Vance favorably, while 42% viewed him unfavorably. Walz was viewed favorably by 39% of Americans while 33% had an unfavorable opinion.

Matt Gorman, a Republican operative who worked for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, likened the debate matchup to the vice presidential debate in 2012, when Republican Paul Ryan, known as a budget-minded wonk, went head-to-head with then-Vice President Joe Biden, who flashed better interpersonal skills. 

“Ryan was right and pushed back effectively, but Biden just ‘out-Irished’ him,” Gorman said. “If Walz wins, it’s because he does that sort of thing.”  

(Reporting by James Oliphant, Stephanie Kelly and Gram Slattery.; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Deepa Babington)