What Tim Walz's past debate performances reveal about how he may take on JD Vance

Tim Walz gazed into the television camera and sped through a seemingly rehearsed set of points he was hoping to drive home in one of his first political debates, just days before the 2006 election that would catapult him from the classroom to the U.S. Congress.

“We have an opportunity here to exercise that greatest of American gifts: The ability to vote and to vote for a representative who will take this country in the direction you feel is best,” Walz said as he closed out the debate. “My optimism in this country is so great.”

That moment pales in comparison to what awaits Walz on Tuesday as the two-term Minnesota governor and Democratic vice presidential nominee steps on a debate stage with Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president.

While Walz is still projecting himself as a candidate of positivity, the hits will come hard and he won’t have the out of being a newcomer. With a nationwide audience watching — and Vice President Harris and former President Donald Trump locked in a tight race — he won’t be able to afford any slip-ups.

Walz’s track record suggests he will focus on his work before entering politics as a teacher, assistant football coach and Army National Guard member. Those who’ve debated him before say Walz has a down-to-earth style that is relatable — but it’s an approach that can also cause problems for him.

Walz leans on his biography to draw contrasts

From the start of his political career nearly 20 years ago, Walz has often emphasized his Midwestern roots and personal biography. It’s how he contrasted himself against his Republican opponent in one of his first debates in his initial run for the U.S. House in 2006.

“The thing I think my opponent fails to realize — he speaks of the arena as the bubble inside the beltway in Washington, D.C. I’ve been in the arena of public life,” Walz said during the debate. “What I think I bring is a real-life experience that knows I don’t have the luxury of being partisan. I don’t have the luxury of being rigid.”

Fast-forward to 2024, Walz is again expected to lean on his pre-politics background when he meets Vance on the debate stage in New York.

Walz, now in his second term as governor, has acknowledged that debates aren’t his strong suit. He told MSNBC earlier this month that the match-up will offer voters a look at what sets him apart from Vance — both in terms of style and policy views.

“He’s Yale Law guy. I’m public school teacher, so we know where he’s at on that. I think it’s a good opportunity to contrast where we’re at,” Walz said following the ABC debate between Trump and Harris earlier this month.

“You’ll hear me talk like I have about things that impact Americans, making sure they have the opportunity to thrive, making sure that we’re being factual and how we talk about that,” he continued.

He’ll have to defend Harris’ record (and his own)

In addition to framing Harris’ vision for the country, Walz will also have to answer for his own record over nearly two decades in politics. That spans the violence in Minneapolis following George Floyd’s murder, the pandemic and a broad swath of policy decisions as governor over the last six years.

Walz was pressed on all three during a 2022 gubernatorial debate at an agriculture trade show. Republican Scott Jensen told an audience in rural Minnesota that Walz used too heavy a hand in imposing restrictions related to those issues and others.

“Let farmers farm. Let miners mine. Let teachers teach. And let government get the hell out of the way,” Jensen said to applause from supporters.

Visibly irked by the comments, Walz stood up from his seat to push back on the critiques and to defend his administration’s approach.

“You can have wishful thinking and you can hope that you know COVID wasn’t real … but that is not where the facts are,” Walz told the crowd. “And as governor, you have to deal with that.”

Jensen says he felt like he was able to put the governor on defense by focusing his answers on areas where Walz was weakest.

“I tried to come back to two or three flaws in his leadership style, so that when the debate was over, the audience would have this general impression that Tim Walz had been slow to act as a leader, or Tim Walz had been unwilling to necessarily do what he thought best in a prompt fashion, because he wanted to check with his support base first,” Jensen said.

His folksy style can be a double-edged sword

Jensen and others who have debated Walz note that the governor is affable and folksy. And they say his move to downplay expectations — a classic pre-debate tactic — could help him set up a more successful outcome.

Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy knows from experience. She debated Walz when the two ran for the 2018 Democratic nomination for governor, which Walz won after a hard race.

“He is a plainspoken person,” Murphy said. “He doesn’t put on airs, and he’s going to be direct with the people about what he believes we need to do.”

But that casual speaking style can also cause problems for Walz, said Paul Gazelka, a former Republican majority leader in the Minnesota senate. He sought to take on Walz in his 2022 reelection bid but got bypassed for the GOP’s nod that year.

“Sometimes he speaks off the top of his mind, which maybe didn’t get him in trouble as much in Minnesota,” Gazelka said, “but if that’s the case now, it will get him into trouble.”

He pointed to a comment the governor made about Minnesota National Guard members being “19-year-old line cooks” as he defended his response to the violence Minneapolis after Floyd’s death. It didn’t land well in the weeks that followed.

The Harris-Walz campaign is looking to avoid a similar trip-up during the debate. They’ve said the focus will be on Walz presenting himself to viewers and illustrating what a Harris presidency would mean for the country.