JD Vance’s debate performance helped rehab his image, but being ‘Minnesota nice’ worked against Tim Walz, campaign experts say [Video]

On debate night, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio faced off against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in the pair’s only debate of their vice presidential campaigns.

While overall Vance came off as sharper and appeared more polished than Walz did, political scientists and strategic communications experts told Business Insider he was starting from behind.

“I think if anything, JD Vance demonstrated that he is a very capable debater, and a much more experienced debater, so if anything, he came off better — but he’s the one that had reputation damage and needed to rebuild and reestablish that with the public and to show that he was a good choice as a VP candidate,” Benjamin Radd, Political Scientist at UCLA and Senior Fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations, told BI.

Vance has been repeatedly embroiled in controversy throughout the campaign. He has been forced to defend 2021 remarks in which he called Democratic leaders “childless cat ladies,” faced criticism for an awkward doughnut …