Former Bush Advisor Hails JD Vance’s ‘Anti-Trump’ Debate Performance

JD Vance’s “anti-Trump” demeanor in Tuesday’s debate was key to his success, according to a former Bush adviser.
“Mr. Vance won the night by coming across as a much different person from the one we’ve seen campaigning,” Karl Rove wrote in a Wednesday column for The Wall Street Journal. “Rather than a combative culture warrior, he was warm, upbeat, empathetic and agreeable. He was a happy campaigner—the anti-Trump.”
The Ohio Senator faced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Tuesday evening, in what is likely to be the last debate of the 2024 presidential election. The policy-centric encounter saw the prospective VPs avoid the personal attacks that had animated the presidential debate a few weeks prior. While Walz gathered steam toward the end of the 100-plus-minute discussion, Vance has been hailed by pundits and voters as the slight victor.
Rove, who served as both Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff under the George W. Bush administration, and has been hailed as the “architect” of the former president’s 2000 and 2004 campaigns, chalked the win up to Vance maintaining focus on his ticket’s key issues.
“Mr. Vance continually returned to the strongest ground for the Trump campaign: substantive policy on the economy, inflation and the border,” Rove said. “He undercut Kamala Harris by asking why she hasn’t already implemented the ideas she’s now touting.”
Rove said that this struck a stark contrast with Walz, who “talked too fast, at times was defensive, sometimes looked bewildered and mangled sentences,” the latter referring to Walz’s “friends with school shooters” remark while discussing gun control.
Rove acknowledged that vice presidential debates seldom make a significant impact on the outcome of elections, but added that “in a contest this tight, small events can have big consequences,” before listing off some other potential “race-shaking” events which could disrupt the Harris campaign.
He cited Hurricane Helene, and the potential fallout from voters in North Carolina and Georgia believing the Biden-Harris administration has mishandled the disaster or the recovery efforts.
The ongoing dockworkers’ strike, which threatens to increase prices just 33 days before the election, and Biden’s reluctance to “order workers back to work,” could also harm Harris’s campaign, Rove said.
Similarly, the incumbent administration’s reaction to the geopolitical upheaval in the Middle East could dissuade the large numbers of Arab and Muslim voters in areas of Michigan from casting a ballot on election day.
“In the campaign’s five remaining weeks, there could be multiple October surprises,” Rove added. “If they touch voters personally, these events are likely to have a bigger effect than Tuesday’s vice-presidential debate.”
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