Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) received stellar reviews for his debate performance on Tuesday night against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), with pundits describing him as “sharp” and offering a “commanding performance.”
“For Vance, it was a commanding performance. For Walz, it was a nervous ramble. For the audience, it was the most civil and substantive debate of the Trump era,” wrote Ross Douthat, a columnist for The New York Times.
“I was struck by the fact that JD Vance is a significantly more eloquent Donald Trump,” said Alyssa Farah Griffin, “The View” co-host and a CNN commentator during a panel. “Watching that, I don’t agree with JD Vance on quite a bit, but he speaks to MAGA in a way that he comes off as an incredibly effective communicator.”
Vance’s performance was even noted by Democrats, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D).
“You know, JD Vance was a better debater than Donald Trump,” she told Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday after the debate. “Donald Trump should have taken some lessons from him.”
Vance and Walz took to the stage in New York City on Tuesday in their first and likely only debate, which was hosted by CBS News. The event offered a rare opportunity for voters to see the two men side by side, offering contrasting visions from their respective campaigns.
Though vice presidential debates are unlikely to move the needle among the electorate in a meaningful way, Vance — who’s regularly taken questions from media during campaign events — appeared more comfortable and relaxed during the debate.
The Ohio Republican sought to pivot to the political middle, including on the issue of abortion, acknowledging at one point “as a Republican who proudly wants to protect innocent life in this country, who proudly wants to protect the vulnerable is that my party, we’ve got to do so much better of a job at earning the American People’s trust back on this issue where they frankly just don’t trust us,” which is a notable admission coming from a prominent Republican.
Walz was also not helped by the fact that he appeared shaky at times. He has participated in fewer back-and-forths with the media than Vance, and Walz stumbled over an answer while trying to address recent reporting that showed he was not present during the Tiananmen Square protests, even though he had said he was there. Walz eventually acknowledged he misspoke.
Republicans also took note of Vance’s performance, including former President Trump, who praised him on his Truth Social platform.
“JD crushed it! Walz was a Low IQ Disaster — Very much like Kamala,” Trump wrote in one post. “Our Country would never be able to recover from an Administration of these two. Can you imagine them representing us with sharp, fierce Foreign Leaders? I can’t!”
Trump campaign senior advisers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita also issued a statement after the debate lauding Vance’s performance and saying “Senator Vance proved why President Trump chose him as his running mate.”
Conservative commentator Megyn Kelly said on her show that “JD Vance put on a masterclass in how to handle biased moderators and a lying opponent, and it was a thing of beauty.”
At the same time, Vance appeared to hit a few stumbles of his own, including when giving an answer on climate change.
“One of the things that I’ve noticed some of our Democratic friends talking a lot about is a concern about carbon emissions — this idea that carbon emissions drive all the climate change,” Vance said.
“Let’s just say that’s true, just for the sake of argument, so we’re not arguing about weird science. Let’s just say that’s true,” he added, before being subsequently fact-checked by one of the moderators.
Still, Vance was largely seen as having a good night, raising questions around whether Vance’s strong debate performance even potentially annoyed Trump, given pundits largely said Vice President Harris had a better night than Trump during their presidential debate.
“I honestly would be surprised that Donald Trump doesn’t want to debate again because JD Vance did so well and he’s going to want the final kind of, you know, the closing argument,” Farah Griffin said after the debate.