Vice presidential candidates Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. JD Vance squared off for the first and only time this election season.
Unlike the last two presidential debates, the candidates appeared to be more cordial. However, both running mates criticized the presidential candidates on a host of issues including gun violence, reproductive rights, immigration and climate change.
Walz appeared to have nerves in the opening of debate, but went on the attack as the night went on. Vance took aim at Harris and her policies and pushed Trump's policies.
Voters have been especially worried about inflation and the rising costs for basic goods like housing since the end of the pandemic. As Walz said tonight, Harris's proposals have focused on the issue of affordability. She's proposed trying to increase supply, which most economists agree is a big driver of rising home prices, but also to give first-time homebuyers a $25,000 grant for making down-payments.
A Napolitan survey from August found that 61 percent of voters liked that idea, though half thought it would drive up housing costs. A Data for Progress survey from this month found that voters like a range of solutions, including increasing supply.
Vance was asked to explain how his health care plan would protect people with preexisting conditions, with the moderator noting that during the presidential debate, Trump said he had "concepts of a plan" to replace the Affordable Care Act.
Vance responded in part, "Of course, we're going to cover Americans with preexisting conditions."
Pressed by the moderator to explain how, he said they plan to keep regulations and laws that protect them in place "but we also want to make the Health Insurance Marketplace function a little bit better now."
Oct 01, 2024, 10:22 PM EDT
Claim: Walz: 'Their Project 2025 is going to have a registry of pregnancies.'
Fact Check: Needs context
Walz has falsely claimed that Project 2025 will require pregnant women to register with a new federal agency designed to monitor their pregnancies. While the Project 2025 policy proposal is firmly against abortion, it does not call for monitoring pregnancies. It does, however, call for states to track abortions more meticulously than current CDC rules mandate, or else face punishment like cuts to federal funding.
Vance and Trump have also both said that Project 2025 is not associated with their campaign.
It’s worth noting, however, that Trump told Time Magazine in April that states could decide to start monitoring pregnancies as a way to track illegal abortions, saying that overturning Roe vs. Wade returned those decisions to the states.
“I think they might do that. Again, you'll have to speak to the individual states. Look, Roe v. Wade was all about bringing it back to the states,” he told Time.
More broadly on the subject of abortion, Project 2025 does call for an end to the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, a widely used abortion medication, and calls for a revival of a 150-year-old law that bans the shipment of abortion related equipment and medicine from being sent via the U.S. Postal Service, which would make it much more difficult for women who are taking the drug legally to access the care.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Governor Tim Walz gestures as he speaks during a debate with Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance in New York City, Oct. 1, 2024.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
In August, Trump signaled he was open to revoking mifepristone access during a press conference in Mar-A-Lago, when he responded to a reporter's question about whether he would direct the FDA to ban the drug. “You could do things that … would supplement. Absolutely. And those things are pretty open and humane,” Trump said, while also emphasizing at that conference that he wanted to “give everybody a vote” on the issue.
When asked to clarify those remarks, Trump’s campaign pointed to the former President’s belief that abortion laws should be left to the states. The former President has also said he would not sign a federal abortion ban into law.
—Justin Fishel
Oct 01, 2024, 10:20 PM EDT
Voters trust Harris much more on abortion
Vance said a few times in this debate that Republicans need to "win back people's trust" on the issue of abortion, and the polls support that.
Abortion is important to many voters this cycle, especially women and Democrats. And they trust Harris more than Trump on the issue. In an ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll from August, they gave Harris a 12 point lead on the issue over Trump.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade, more Americans have also expanded their view of abortion rights and don't want states to put limits on the procedure. KFF has found that nearly three-quarters of reproductive-age women oppose leaving abortion access up to the states, as Trump and Vance have said they support.
Democrats have been working in states across the country to paint Republican candidates as too extreme on the issue, and are hoping it drives voters to the polls as it has the past two years.
