Photo : Collected
US vice presidential candidates J.D. Vance and Tim Walz will face off Tuesday in a debate that promises to be a feisty battle to win over voters in middle America, who could decide the cliffhanger 2024 election.
The Republican Ohio senator and the Democratic Minnesota governor make for a study in contrasts and have already traded a series of bad-tempered insults in the bitter race for the White House.
The combative Vance, 40, shares former president Donald Trump's gift for courting controversy, whether by smearing Democrats as "childless catladies," spreading bogus stories about pet-eating migrants or questioning his rival's military record.
Walz, 60, is a folksy Midwestern former teacher and high school footballcoach who was chosen at lightning speed by Vice President Kamala Harris after his attacks on Vance and Trump as "weird" went viral.
But what the pair have in common is that their bosses are counting on them to reach out to voters in the blue-collar US heartland and help propel them to the Oval Office.
The clash should make for good television, even if VP debates themselves rarely move the dial in elections, said Thomas Whalen, an associate professor of social sciences at Boston University.
"High drama -- I think that's what Americans want to see and they very well might get it on Tuesday," Whalen told AFP.
"You've barely had a vice presidential debate that's had any appreciable difference," he said.
"But it's that reality television angle. Americans are fascinated by confrontations, and J.D. Vance and Walz, they are so different --
personality-wise, politically -- it might be just worth your while to take a few moments to check them out."
The debate hosted by the CBS network in New York at 9:00 pm Tuesday (0100 GMT Wednesday) could also be the last major televised face-off before the election.
Trump has refused to take part in a second debate with Harris, after pundits and polls agreed the Democrat won their first on September 10.
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