ANALYSIS — The vice presidential race took center stage Wednesday as the former football coach and the retired Marine traded barbs in key battleground states.
Former officials and analysts contend data show voters overwhelmingly make their choices based on the two parties’ presidential nominees. But on the first full day they were opponents, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Republican Sen. JD Vance were dashing ample spice onto an intriguing vice presidential race that offers voters a stark contrast.
In a surreal scene Wednesday, Vance walked from his private plane on an airport tarmac in Wisconsin to where Air Force Two had just parked. He addressed reporters there to cover the arrival of the Democratic ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris and Walz. Vance called Harris’ failure to do interviews since becoming the presidential nominee “insulting to the American people” and told the journalists, “I wish she paid more attention to y’all.”
