How is JD Vance preparing to debate Gov. Tim Walz?

CATHY WURZER: Here in Minnesota, voters on both sides of the aisle have had more time to get to know Governor Tim Walz than his opponent, JD Vance. Vance gained national recognition for his memoir Hillbilly Elegy back in 2016, but his political career is relatively new. Vance was elected to the US Senate two years ago, thanks in part to the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.

Our next guest, Sarah Donaldson, has been covering Vance since that election. She's a reporter for the statehouse News Bureau in Ohio, and she's on the line. Sarah, thanks for taking time. I know you're really busy.

SARAH DONALDSON: Hey, thanks for having me, Cathy. It's good to be here.

CATHY WURZER: Thanks. Thank you. I appreciate it. I just watched some of the debate that Vance had against Democrat Tim Evans in that 2022 Senate race. And he's a pretty sharp, nimble debater. I know you covered that debate. What do you remember about it?

SARAH DONALDSON: I remember probably what you saw when he was debating former representative, Tim Ryan. It was always going to be, I think, an interesting race between the two of them.

But he is a sharp debater for someone who is young, for someone who does not have a lot of political experience in the way that, obviously, Governor Tim Walz has. I mean, Vance has that Trump appeal to him, I think, in that he's seen as an outsider. He's young, and he really has a pretty short political career to this point.

CATHY WURZER: Of course, fact checking claims made on the debate stage is pretty tough. Political reporters, of course, are set to debunk and give us some context on what the candidates will say. Are there topics that you and your news team are expecting might come up tonight that you'll need to do a little fact checking on?

SARAH DONALDSON: Absolutely. I think one of the biggest ones, and this is something that came up during the presidential debate, has been this conversation around a community in Ohio called Springfield. Springfield has fed into the national immigration debate because there's a very large population of legal Haitian immigrants in Springfield. And Vance was one of the first people to call attention to Springfield. And he's called attention to some of the objectively agreed upon issues that a really big population influx has.

There's a need for health care. There is a need for driving lessons for folks who are coming from Haiti and don't take the same driver's tests that we take in the United States. But Vance has also called attention to unfounded rumors about these immigrants eating cats and geese. Local officials, the local Republican mayor, have said, that's just not true. We don't have the evidence to back that.

But Vance has called attention to those rumors. And, of course, his running mate, former President Donald Trump, brought up the rumors, again, during the presidential debate. So I imagine there's a chance that Springfield gets brought up tonight. And, of course, Vance has backed off and then come back onto these rumors.

But we'll also be looking for how he talks about his former comments about former President Donald Trump. Vance was one Republican among many Republicans who was very much a never-Trumper at one time. And, of course, you see how that works out now because he's Trump's running mate.

CATHY WURZER: What do you hear from voters in Ohio about that?

SARAH DONALDSON: I think the general consensus is, at least, it's my understanding that Republicans who are going to vote for Trump, they don't really see much to it anymore because Trump has said he's forgiven Vance. Obviously, not only has Trump chosen Vance as his running mate in this election cycle, but Trump is really the big reason that Vance was elected to the Senate in the first place.

Although, Vance, ultimately, beat Tim Ryan out for the Senate seat in the general election by several points, he was in a very crowded primary field in Ohio in 2022. I think there were seven other Republican candidates. And I was a college reporter at the time. I went to an event with a couple of voters and Vance before he had the Trump endorsement.

And people in Ohio really didn't know much about Vance. You say, obviously, that folks in Minnesota know Tim Walz better because he's been in office for a long time. People in Ohio know Vance a little bit more than maybe the rest of the country. But I think a lot of people in Ohio are still getting to know Vance. And his star has risen in great part because of Trump.

CATHY WURZER: He also, of course, wrote a best selling memoir about his upbringing in Ohio, in Appalachia, made into a movie. How does his personal story resonate with folks in your state?

SARAH DONALDSON: I definitely think it resonates with other white working class folks who are in Ohio. Of course, Ohio is no longer a swing state. Our state is very likely going to vote for Trump this presidential election.

But I think the idea here is in him running with Trump, he is also speaking to those white working class voters that Trump has courted so effectively in other swing states like Pennsylvania, like Michigan.

And I think Vance's story is one that when he wrote Hillbilly Elegy, for a long time after, he was doing television hits and radio hits, and people were calling him in some ways the Voice of Appalachia.

Now, of course, there has been almost a counterculture among some Appalachians who say JD Vance doesn't speak for us. He doesn't speak for our experience. But I think, in some part, he definitely does speak to the experiences for some people living and working in the modern rural America.

CATHY WURZER: So I'm curious what Senator Vance like to cover as a reporter? He seems like he's open to taking questions from all reporters, national, local. What's your feel?

SARAH DONALDSON: He hasn't been in Ohio as much as folks. I love accessibility when it comes to politicians and the ability to talk to them and ask them questions. I haven't had the opportunity to cover him face to face much since he's gone to the Senate. He is definitely a regular face on national media.

I will say, though, he definitely seems to be open to answering questions. That being said, he definitely has adopted a combative tone to him. And, I think, you'll see that in the debate tonight too. He's definitely-- he's a fighter, in his words, I think, I would say.

CATHY WURZER: And our reporter Dana Ferguson, who's out in New York right now, says that he's known for these piercing comebacks, and he turns any question into an opening to go on the offensive. So it should be interesting to watch here tonight.

Say, I have to ask you about this because I'm sure you're really busy with this particular race. I see you got one of the most competitive and spendiest Senate races going on in Ohio. What's going on with that race? Why is it so close?

SARAH DONALDSON: Absolutely. So in 2022, the race between Vance and Ryan was so closely watched because it was an opening. So former Republican Senator Rob Portman had left, and, obviously, Democrats were trying to flip the seat.

Right now, Democrats are trying to retain Senator Sherrod Brown's seat. He's a long-time Democrat in Ohio. He's actually the only statewide elected Democrat in Ohio, which is pretty unheard of in this current time in Ohio because we have Republicans otherwise.

But they're trying to defend the seat against Bernie Moreno. He's a Republican. He's also Trump backed. I would say he's trying to mimic the campaign in ways that Vance ran in Ohio, staying very close to Trump, staying on message with what Trump wants and what Trump likes.

So it'll definitely be a very expensive race, and it would be very, very challenging for Senator Sherrod Brown to pull this off and get re-elected, because, of course, Trump is on the ballot in Ohio. So it's just going to be about if he can get those margins. And there are those people who still vote a split ticket in 2024. They vote for Trump, and they vote for Sherrod Brown.

CATHY WURZER: All right. So, Sarah, it looks like you've got your hands full there when it comes to the Senate race and also what's happening tonight with the VP debate. So we wish you well. Thank you for taking the time.

SARAH DONALDSON: Thank you very much. It was so fun to talk.

CATHY WURZER: Sara Donaldson is a reporter for the Statehouse News Bureau, which covers politics and government for public radio and television in Ohio. By the way, you can hear our special coverage of the debate starting at 8:00 tonight, Central Time, right here on the radio and online at mprnews.org.