Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Ohio Senator JD Vance are hours away from the first and only vice presidential debate.
as latest Fox News Power Rankings Revealingly, Vance starts the evening with the lead on the economy and immigration, while Walz has the lead on abortion.
Fox News Power Rankings Issues and Quality Tracker. (Fox News)
Policy is the key to winning a debate
The vice presidential candidates don’t attract as much attention as their bosses when debating, but like Fox News. Aron Mishkin debated on MondayHe has changed the direction of at least six elections in the last 50 years.
In most cases, these debates are won on policy. Voters aren’t as familiar with these candidates as they are with former President Donald Trump or even Vice President Kamala Harris, and they don’t have to make their choice.
The smart play for these vice presidential candidates is to focus on the key issues at stake and how their administration will resolve them.
Fox News power rankings: Harris moves ahead and Senate Republicans take charge
This is especially true for Walz on the economy and immigration, as Harris’ campaign has consistently lagged behind on those issues. Meanwhile, Vance has struggled poor compatibility ratingSo his challenge is to hit the popular parts of Trump’s agenda and avoid getting into the trenches of the culture war.
There are also style points up for grabs. Many voters will only see the debate in short clips on social media, so acting as a policy gambit is less likely than ever to get the job done.
Trump has a clear lead on the economy and immigration; Harris strong on abortion
Former President Donald Trump leads the Fox News power ranking in terms of economy. (Fox News)
Trump is leading on two of the top three issues in this campaign. he leads the economy by nine points and immigration by 11 points.
Those numbers have barely changed since Harris and Trump’s debate. In August, when Power Rankings last looked at key issues, the former president was ahead on the economy by eight points Immigration till 13.
Former President Donald Trump leads Fox News power rankings on immigration. (Fox News)
Harris is far ahead on the issue of abortion. He leads by 17 points on that issue, which is a negligible movement since the last tracker (Harris +18).
Vice President Kamala Harris leads the Fox News power rankings on abortion. (Fox News)
Polls included in this tracker fox news, Quinnipiac, CNN/SSRS, nbc news and this New York Times/Siena,
In the horse race after the debate with Harris, Trump lost one point while the vice president gained one point; These minor changes reflect changes since the first debate in 2020.
Overall, these results suggest that Trump’s slight decline was due to style rather than substance.
In contrast, while Harris won the debate and maintained her advantage on abortion, she has not consistently narrowed the issue gap, particularly on immigration.
Top three issues in latest Fox News poll. (Fox News)
This is not ideal for them, as the economy (38%) and immigration (17%) are two of the top three issues for voters. A recent Fox News national poll showed that these issues and abortion (16%) were the only three issues that a double-digit percentage of voters said were their “most important” issues in deciding their vote.
Harris is ahead on most non-marquee issues but Trump is ahead on security and foreign policy.
According to the same survey, Harris has a strong lead on issues outside the top three. This includes health care, helping the middle class, and climate change. These are the “bread and butter” issues that the left has relied on to turn out base voters in past elections.
More issues and merits from the Fox News poll.
The Democratic candidate is also a leader in uniting the country and, according to previous trackers, he has the right temperament for the job.
The candidates are evenly divided on national security. There is no use being Commander-in-Chief in dealing with a crisis that endangers the country or in making decisions about the use of nuclear weapons. Trump’s lack of temperament should have given Harris the opportunity to lead based on some of these qualities, but that has not happened.
Voting on national security. (Fox News)
Aron Mishkin: JD Vance is an excellent debater and practices debate every Sunday
Ultimately, voters like Trump on foreign policy. He has a six-point lead on handling the Israel/Hamas war and an eight-point lead on the Ukraine/Russia war.
Voting on foreign policy. (Fox News)
five weeks until election night
Tuesday is debate night. Walz and Vance will face off at an event hosted by CBS News in New York City. Fox News will air the debate at 8:20 p.m. ET with special coverage moderated by Brett Baier and Martha MacCallum.
fox news media has proposed The second Harris-Trump debate, moderated by McCallum and Beyer, took place in October.
Voters can now cast a ballot in more than half of the states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina.
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While many voters are expected to vote early, Election Day is only five weeks away.
