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Ahead of the first and likely only national debate of the presidential election cycle, JD Vance prepared for the event at his home in Cincinnati and virtually on Zoom. He hired Republican Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota to play his opponent in the mock games. And he enlisted Donald Trump’s campaign strategist, Jason Miller, and his own wife, Usha, to help, people familiar with the dispute said.
But he says he doesn’t need to prepare.
“We have well-developed views on public policy, so we don’t have to prepare much,” Vance said at the Teamsters press conference Wednesday morning. “We feel a lot more confident, and frankly, there’s no need to prepare if you don’t have to hide what you’re saying.”
In many ways, his statement was exactly what Republicans — and Trump in particular — continue to support: he’s soft-spoken, outspoken, and enthusiastic about the media. And unlike Trump, he sticks relentlessly on message and is known as an agile debater.
“It’s going to be the first time a lot of Americans are going to see him, and I think they’re going to be very impressed, especially if they answer the questions in this way,” said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a close Vance ally. also in the race to be Trump’s running mate. “I mean, he’s been answering the questions that are going to be asked in the debate for years, certainly throughout his time in the Senate and as a public figure.”
Vance is in only his second campaign after successfully running for the Ohio Senate in 2022. But the Yale Law School alumnus and author of “Hillbilly Elegy” has already made a name for himself as a strong communicator and political whisperer for the Trump campaign. as the torchbearer of the MAGA movement. In addition to regularly fielding questions from the media on the campaign trail, he frequently joins cable news networks and Sunday shows — sometimes in front of unfriendly interviewers — to defend Trump’s policies.
On the campaign trail, Vance said answering reporters’ questions — he often holds press conferences during his rallies to draw attention to Vice President Kamala Harris’s lack of media appearances — best prepared him for the Oct. 1 debate in New York. . He spent most of the week on the campaign trail, holding rallies in North Carolina, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
“What me and Donald Trump are going to continue to do is go everywhere and talk to everybody,” Vance said when asked how he was preparing for Monday’s rally in Charlotte, North Carolina. “We’re talking to the hostile media, we’re talking to the friendly media, we’re talking to the national media, we’re talking to the local media, and we’re doing it because we believe the American people deserve leaders who will try to get their vote instead of expecting it. to give them.”
However, Vance’s entry onto the national political stage was hardly smooth sailing.
Ever since former President Donald Trump tapped her as his running mate in July, Ohio Republicans have resurfaced grumblings that the country is run by “childless cat ladies.” He was criticized for arguing that childless couples should pay more tax. And he rebuked GOP moderates after launching a conspiracy that Haitian migrants were eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. (Vance has since defended the “childless cat ladies” comment as sarcasm.)
Vance continues to fare well among GOP voters, with 57 percent of registered Republicans giving him a favorable opinion. a recent AP-NORC poll. But the poll also revealed some weaknesses, including that Democrats are more negative about Vance than Republicans are about Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, 80 percent to 61 percent. Independents also view Vance more negatively than Walz, with 43 percent disliking Vance compared to 30 percent of Walz.
Vance plans to attack Walz during the debate over his status as governor, particularly his handling of the unrest in Minneapolis following the killing of George Floyd, according to a person familiar with the debate strategy who spoke on condition of anonymity about the preparations. Vance, as he did on the campaign trail, will grill Walz over his 24 years in the military after the Minnesota governor said in 2018 that they were “weapons of war that I carried in war” when explaining why he changed his stance on supporting an attack. gun ban when he ran for governor. Harris’ campaign says Walz misspoke.
The person also said Vance is trying to undermine Walz’s image as a moderate (he famously flipped a session in Minnesota) by painting him as a liberal, pointing to some of his socially progressive policies he signed as governor, such as a bill requiring all gender-identified students receive menstrual products, the person said.
It’s a similar strategy Vance used in his 2022 debates against former Rep. Tim Ryan. In previous Senate debates, Vance has effectively put the spotlight on immigration policy and the economy. He tied Ryan to then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, painted Ryan as a “too liberal” congressman, and asked Ryan what he had accomplished in his two decades in Congress.
“Tim Ryan says he believes in common sense solutions,” Vance said during a recent Senate debate. Turning to the congressman, he said, “Well, Tim, what have you done with these common sense solutions in your 20 years in Washington, DC?”
And he made the same argument about Harris: “Kamala, the first day was 1,400 days ago, what the hell have you been doing all this time?” he said at a rally in Michigan on Wednesday, a line he’s used throughout the campaign, especially when talking about one day of Harris’ promises. The Harris-Walz campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
“A lot of people know him. They know his story,” said Jim Banks (R-Ind.), a close Vance ally. “If they haven’t read the book, they’ve seen the movie, and maybe it’s the first time they’ve seen it in person, or the first time they’re talking.”
Meridith McGraw contributed to this report.