Polls show voters have a more favorable opinion of Walz than of Vance

WASHINGTON – The highly anticipated CBS News vice presidential debate will take place on Tuesday, October 1 at 9 p.m.

This is the first-ever Democratic vice presidential candidate, Tim Walz, and the Republican Party’s vice presidential candidate, JD Vance, ahead of the November 5 election.

Who is Tim Walz?

Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate on Aug. 6, just over two weeks after Joe Biden’s presidential re-election campaign ended.

Walz was elected governor of Minnesota in 2018 and re-elected in 2022 after several years as U.S. Representative for Minnesota’s First Congressional District. Previously, he was a teacher, trainer and member of the Home Army.

As governor, Walz touted his achievements, including providing free school meals to all Minnesota students, protecting reproductive freedom, cutting taxes for the middle class and expanding paid leave for workers.

In addition to being governor, he also serves as co-chair of the Democratic Convention’s Rules Committee.

A file photo shows Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz during a press conference on Monday, April 20, 2020, in St. Paul, Minnesota (Scott Takushi, Pool/MediaNews Group/St. Paul Pioneer Press via Getty Images)

Walz was born in Nebraska and joined the National Guard after high school. He graduated from Chadron State College in 1989 with a degree in social studies. He then taught overseas for a year before returning home to serve full-time in the National Guard, teach high school, and accept a coaching position.

Walz is married to Gwen Walz. They moved to Mankato, Minnesota, where they both worked at Mankato High School, where he taught social studies and helped coach the Mankato West football team.

In 2006, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, representing Minnesota’s First Congressional District, and was re-elected to five additional terms before running for Governor of Minnesota.

Who is JD Vance?

On July 15, former President Donald Trump announced Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his running mate.

Vance, 39, was elected as a Buckeye state senator in 2022, defeating Democratic candidate Tim Ryan.

The junior senator rose to fame after releasing his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” in 2016.

The 39-year-old’s memoir, published the year Trump was elected, covers his childhood years in Jackson, Kentucky, raised by “Mamaw” and “Papaw” while his mother struggled with drug addiction.

The book was later turned into a Netflix movie, which put him even more in the spotlight.

Vance was once a self-proclaimed “Never Trump.”

RELATED: J.D. Vance owns a $1.5 million home in Alexandria. Here’s what his neighbors have to say

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KENOSHA, WISCONSIN – AUGUST 20: Republican vice presidential candidate, U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-OH) addresses the audience at a campaign rally on August 20, 2024 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. As part of his campaign, Vance is campaigning in several battleground states. (Photo: Andy Manis/Getty Images)

“I’m a never-Trump guy,” Vance said in a 2016 interview with Charlie Rose. “I never liked him.”

The Ohio native harshly condemned Trump on Twitter during his 2016 campaign, calling him a “moral disaster” and “another opioid” for Central America.

In 2016, Vance also wrote privately on Facebook to his former law school roommate Josh McLaurin that he was “vacillating between thinking Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon who wouldn’t be so bad (and might even prove useful) or that he is the American Hitler.”

But over the past 18 months, he has turned into one of Trump’s staunchest MAGA allies, demonstrating loyalty to the former president and downplaying the events surrounding the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Who is more advantageous?

While most polls show Walz as a more favorable vice presidential candidate than Vance, a Gallup poll shows that less than half of registered voters nationwide have a favorable view of the vice presidential election.

An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released Sept. 24 found Vance viewed less favorably than Walz. About half of registered voters – 51% – have an unfavorable view of Vance, compared with 32% of registered voters who view Walz unfavorably.

Walz also has a larger advantage among voters in his own party – 72% of registered Democratic voters have a favorable opinion of him, while just 9% have an unfavorable opinion of him. By comparison, 57% of GOP voters have a favorable opinion of Vance and 18% have an unfavorable opinion.

The Pew Research poll found a much smaller gap between the two candidates, although it still put Walz ahead of Vance. According to their survey, 34% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Vance and 39% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Walz.

Pew research shows there is a deep divide when it comes to gender. About four in 10 women – 38% – have a favorable view of Walz, while support for Vance among women is almost the opposite, with 29% having a favorable view of Vance and 40% having an unfavorable view.

A September 28 New York Times/Siena College poll also showed that a key base of Midwestern voters preferred Walz to Vance. Walz was viewed favorably by 44% of voters and unfavorably by 41%, while Vance was viewed favorably by 42% and unfavorably by 48%.

It also found that among voters nationwide, more people viewed Vance as unfavorable than Walz, with 32% of respondents saying they had an unfavorable opinion of Walz and 57% saying the same about Vance.

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