Voters think JD Vance is more weird than Tim Walz, but only just, as the two VP candidates prepare to debate

Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Tim Walz will meet Tuesday in their only vice presidential debate of the 2024 election, and both have a point to prove: That they are not completely weird.

Walz may have deployed the term first to write off the entire Republican ticket, but a J.L. Partners/DailyMail.com poll of voters shows he has work to do too.

When 1000 likely voters were asked earlier this month who was the most weird of the two candidates, some 40 percent picked Sen. Vance, 40.

More than a third, 35 percent, nominated Walz, the 60-year-old governor of Minnesota.

But in an election that will go down to the wire, decided by the tiniest of margins, there are signs that there is everything to play for when the two running mates take the stage in New York on Tuesday evening. 

Some 25 percent of respondents said they simply did not know who was the weirdest of candidates.

That means that each has a chance to speak directly to an audience that may not know a lot about Vance or Walz.

Our poll also found that Walz starts with another edge over Vance, who has attracted a string of negative headlines over resurfaced remarks about the country being run by 'chidless cat ladies' and lamenting how car seat regulations had led to low birthrates.

Walz starts with a plus two favorability rating (the difference between the percentage of people who approve of him and those who disapprove).

Vance is under water, with a net favorability of minus six.

However, the Ohio senator has actually seen his rating improve during the past month (up from minus eight) while Walz has been trending the wrong way (down from plus four.) 

The match-up, hosted by CBS News, may not carry the same sort of stakes as last month's Trump-Harris showdown, but sparks could still fly.

Vance has mocked Walz's military service record, while Walz has gone after Vance's opposition to abortion and his focus on couples having children.

But the key role of each man will be to act as defenders or attack dogs for the candidate at the top of the ticket.

In the past, that he meant plenty of heat but not much light. 

This could be different, according to James Johnson, co-founder of J.L. Partners. 

'Typically vice presidential debates don't matter however margins are so tight that actually a blowout performance by one of the other candidate could win over some undecideds, at least in theory,' he said.

'A swing voter I spoke to in Pennsylvania, for example, was waiting for this debate to make her mind up.'

Johnson said both candidates were less known to the public than Trump and Harris which meant there might be more space for substance.

'I expect this to be a debate where we spend more time talking about the issues afterwards than the personalities,' he said. 

The two can also be relied on to talk up their middle America roots. Both won their places on their ticket with something of an everyman appeal—Vance as the son of a mother brought low by the country's opioid epidemic and Walz with what supporters see as his 'normal dad' and 'Minnesota nice vibe.