VP debate pits hillbilly energy against 'Minnesota nice'

U.S. 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 cat ladies," 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 football coach 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.

- 'Trap' -

A little extra spice could come from the fact that Vance's and Walz's microphones will be live throughout, allowing them to cut in on their rivals. Trump and Harris had their mics muted when it was not their turn to talk.

The pressure on Tuesday could be biggest on Vance, the youthful senator whom Trump picked in June in the hope he could reach out to his blue-collar base.

Vance made his name with the 2016 memoir "Hillbilly Elegy," a best-selling account of Rust Belt poverty, and boasted a rags-to-riches life story that included military service in Iraq and a Silicon Valley fortune.

But Walz is sure to attack him over a series of controversies linked to previous comments on women and abortion, including where he criticized "childless cat ladies" in a jab at Harris for not having biological children.

Vance can also expect to come under fire for promoting false stories about Haitian migrants eating pet cats and dogs in the town of Springfield, Ohio.

For Walz, it has been a heady ascent since Harris picked him shortly after her own sudden replacement of President Joe Biden as the Democratic presidential nominee.

His earthy charm, the famed "Minnesota nice" politeness made famous by the 1996 Coen brothers film "Fargo," has made him a hit with Democrats.

So have his progressive politics -- but they will also be a target for Vance as he and Trump seek to paint Walz and Harris as "Marxists."

The hardline conservative is also expected to hit Walz over claims that he abandoned his US National Guard unit before it deployed to Iraq, and that he and his wife used in vitro fertilization (IVF) to have children when in fact they used a different procedure.

IVF is a hot political topic as Democrats claim Republicans want to limit access to it and to abortion.

But in the end, the debate will likely come down to a clash of personalities.

Polls show Vance trails Walz in terms of popularity with voters, and at one point he had some of the lowest ratings of any vice presidential nominee in US history.

"Vance has to be careful, because I think a trap has been laid for him," said Whalen.