What Walz’s latest debate says about his chances against Vance

Walz met Scott Jensen, a former Republican state senator from Minnesota, in 2022 when he was seeking re-election in the Gopher State. The pair met on Oct. 18 in a debate sponsored by Gray Television that touched on COVID-19 policy, diversity, abortion and other topics.

Things got heated on more than one occasion, with Jensen even accusing Walz of throwing out a “word salad with no substance,” but that was enough for Walz to win in the left-leaning state with 52% of the vote, to Jensen’s 45%, giving the Democrats two Years later, Kamala Harris’ vice president.

David Schultz, a politics professor at Hamline University in St. Paul, said Walz’s debate style evolved from his time as a centrist Democrat in Congress to the more liberal stance toward Jensen.

“He has become more forceful in expressing his positions and has become much more aggressive as a debater than before,” Schultz said. “Whether this debate [against Jensen] I don’t know where he developed into being more of a pit bull. But certainly the tone and content have really changed.”

Here are some of the debate tactics that Walz has demonstrated in 2022 and that he may want to repeat in the vice president debate moderated by CBS News on Tuesday at 9 p.m.

Walz goes on the attack over abortion

It wasn’t long before Walz tried to bring a controversial topic to Jensen’s attention during their debate. When asked about abortion policy just a few months later Roe v. Wade was repealed, Jensen said that abortion is a constitutionally protected right in Minnesota.

“It’s not on the ballot in November,” Jensen said, before turning to inflation, crime and education.

“As governor, I will not ban abortion. I can’t,” the Republican continued, accusing Walz of fear-mongering over the issue.

When it was Walz’s turn, he went on the attack.

“I just want to be very clear: This is on the ballot. It will have an impact on generations to come,” he said. “I trust women. I trust them to make their own health decisions.”

Walz accused Jensen of wavering on abortion, something he is likely to do against Vance, who in the past has expressed support for a 15-week abortion ban with exceptions but has recently backed away from that stance.

“A clear win for Walz is if he doesn’t say anything wrong and has Vance on the defense the whole time,” Schultz said, “mostly about abortion.”

Questions about COVID-19 concern Walz

A topic already dated to 2022 and beyond could still put Walz on the defensive. Walz was a staunch supporter of pandemic policy and even set up a hotline for Minnesota residents to report their neighbors for lockdown violations, which doesn’t look good in hindsight.

When Walz was asked about the significant learning loss experienced by children who were not allowed in school classrooms, he had a hard time finding a message.

“We have seen a lot during the pandemic,” Walz said in a lengthy response. “One of the things we’ve seen with these students is great resilience, and now that we have them back in the classroom, we’re taking new approaches to making sure they’re able to sustain content.”

“I heard a lot of words there,” Jensen replied, “but I’m not sure if they really make sense.”

Once again it’s about energy policy

A topic that is no longer current is energy policy, which Jensen Walz wanted to address more than once.

Jensen accused Walz of forcing Minnesotans to buy electric vehicles and copying California’s left-wing ideas, something former President Donald Trump accused Walz and Harris of this year. Walz was also accused of trying to close mines in the northern part of the state, which he denied.

“If you don’t want to buy [an EV]“Don’t buy one,” Walz replied. “But if you buy one in Minnesota, we have an opportunity to continue to grow our economy, continue to make that transition and understand that that’s where the market and the climate is headed.”

Jensen was not impressed.

“It’s just word salad with no substance,” he said.

Walz responded harshly to the mining allegations, saying he had made the largest mining investment in northern Minnesota in decades. Vance is also expected to blow Walz away on energy, not over mining in Minnesota but over fracking in Pennsylvania, arguably the biggest swing state of all.

Walz and Jensen dance the tax tango

Walz and Jensen both claimed they were better for the middle class when it came to taxes, a moment that could be repeated during the Oct. 1 debate.

“We cut taxes for the middle class,” Walz said, claiming he worked with Republicans to create $4 billion in tax cuts for the middle class.

When it was Jensen’s turn, he changed the topic slightly, moving from taxes to Walz’s response to the George Floyd protests.

“If you get what you pay for in Minnesota, I think Gov. Walz didn’t pay much for the police because we have lawlessness like we’ve never seen before,” he said.

Jensen also attacked Walz over tax fraud in the state’s pandemic program, saying Walz’s office was “lazy” in tracking down the problem. Walz said the problem had been solved and the perpetrators would be sent to prison.

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So what does Walz have to do to defeat Vance? Schultz said he doubts voters will pay too much attention to the vice president, so the first priority is simply to do no harm.

“Stick to the basic themes, stick to the script,” Schultz said. “The question is: Do you moderate and hope you can win over swing voters, or do you say, ‘Let’s go ahead and get the base hot, bothered and excited.’ I think it’s going to be, ‘Let’s keep the base motivated.'”