AILSA CHANG, HOST:
The vice-presidential candidates face off in a debate tonight in New York City, Republican Senator JD Vance of Ohio against Democratic Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota. The debate, hosted by CBS News, will be the only time the candidates will meet onstage. Now, Vance and Walz hold similar roles in their respective campaigns - to appeal to working-class voters in the crucial swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. NPR's Ximena Bustillo is at the CBS News studio and joins us now for a preview. Hi, Ximena.
XIMENA BUSTILLO, BYLINE: Hey there.
CHANG: Hey. All right, so talk about how this debate fits into the overall presidential race and into how people are viewing all the candidates right now.
BUSTILLO: Well, this is likely to be the last debate of any kind before November 5. That's Election Day. And Vice President Harris challenged former President Donald Trump to his second presidential debate, but so far, he has declined that invite. The vice presidents typically only debate once, also. So because both men are being used to mobilize voters, it's likely that the parties will be watching to see how they best support and defend the policy positions and controversies of their running mates.
CHANG: And it looks like this debate will have different rules - right? - compared to the presidential debate last month. What else can we expect onstage tonight?
BUSTILLO: Well, most of the format will be similar. There's still no audience. But one difference is that microphones will be unmuted the whole time, though CBS News reserves the right to mute them. Now, whether mics were muted or not was a contentious issue for the presidential debates, with Trump's team wanting them muted. But the mics seem to be less of an issue here in this debate, where Vance and Walz are more focused on introducing themselves to the broader public.
Vance is a first-term senator who was elected in 2022, and he is fairly new to politics. And he was once a staunch critic of Trump. He used his background growing up in Ohio to blame Biden and Democrats for the loss of their industry in the region. And the Trump campaign is hoping to use this working-class appeal to bring in voters from the region.
CHANG: Right. Well, Walz has also been emphasizing his Midwestern background, right? Like, remind us how that's playing into his pitch to voters.
BUSTILLO: Yeah. Walz is the two-term governor, and he was in Congress before that, so he has more policy and political experience. But he has branded himself as Coach for his job as a public school teacher and football coach before he entered politics. He has spoken about how parties are courting rural and Midwestern voters, too, but from a different perspective. He has used his background as a small-town teacher to draw contrast to Vance, who got his law degree at Yale.
CHANG: And, Ximena, what are some of the criticisms of each candidate that you expect to come up tonight?
BUSTILLO: Well, the military record of both candidates is likely to come up. Vance criticized Walz for his record, including for saying that he carried weapons, quote, "in war" when he had not been in combat. Walz, who served in the National Guard for over 20 years, only saw wartime deployment in Italy - to Italy in 2003. Vance, who served in the Marines did a six-month deployment to Iraq but also did not see combat.
CHANG: Right.
BUSTILLO: But they both have had their own share of negative press to address. Since his nomination, Vance has received criticisms for calling prominent Democrats, quote, "childless cat ladies" and has come under fire for spreading the false claim that Haitian migrants are eating pets in Ohio. Walz, on the other hand, has faced questions about his response to riots in Minneapolis following the 2020 murder of George Floyd. So we'll get the chance to see tonight how candidates defend but also how they go on the attack.
CHANG: We'll be tuning in. That is NPR's Ximena Bustillo. Thank you so much, Ximena.
BUSTILLO: Thank you.
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