Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
The unspoken rule of vice-presidential debates is to do no harm to the person you sit below in the ticket: by this measure Trump’s JD Vance and Harris’s Tim Walz both had a good evening. But Vance put in by far the more interesting performance in last night’s debate. It was a long way from the pugilistic Vance who said “childless cat ladies” were running the country and spread disinformation about Haitian migrants in Ohio. Last night’s Vance admitted Republicans needed to earn people’s trust back on abortion, said the US had a gun violence epidemic, and expressed sympathy when Walz said his son had witnessed a shooting.. Vance also hit the right tone for wavering voters who might hold their nose to vote for Trump, claiming (rightly or wrongly) that Trump “got things done”. It’s unlikely this performance will meaningfully move the dial on November’s election – VP debates rarely do – but the 40-year-old Vance will have done himself no harm if he wants to run for president in 2028.
To note: Tortoise will be releasing a podcast about Vance and the future of the new right in the next few days. Watch this space.
