Första och troligen sista debatten mellan Walz och Vance

James David Vance (born James Donald Bowman; August 2, 1984) is an American politician, author, venture capitalist, and Marine veteran who has served as the junior United States senator from Ohio since 2023. He is the Republican Party's nominee for vice president in the 2024 United States presidential election. After high school, Vance joined the US Marine Corps, where he served as a military journalist from 2003 to 2007. He graduated from Ohio State University and Yale Law School. He practiced briefly as a corporate lawyer before embarking on a career in the tech industry as a venture capitalist. His memoir, Hillbilly Elegy, was published in 2016, and was adapted into a film in 2020. Vance won the 2022 United States Senate election in Ohio, defeating Democratic nominee Tim Ryan. After opposing Donald Trump's candidacy in the 2016 election, Vance has become a strong Trump supporter since Trump's presidency. In July 2024, Trump selected Vance as his running mate before the Republican National Convention. Vance has been characterized as a national conservative and right-wing populist, and he describes himself as a member of the postliberal right. His political positions include opposition to abortion, same-sex marriage, gun control, and American military aid to Ukraine. Vance is also an outspoken critic of childlessness. He has acknowledged the influence of Catholic theology on his socio-political positions.

Timothy James Walz ( WAWLZ; born April 6, 1964) is an American politician, former educator, and retired U.S. Army non-commissioned officer who has served since 2019 as the 41st governor of Minnesota. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2019, and the ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee from 2017 to 2019. Walz is the Democratic Party's nominee for vice president in the 2024 United States presidential election. Walz was born in West Point, Nebraska. After high school, he joined the Army National Guard and worked in a tanning bed factory in Jonesboro, Arkansas. He later graduated from Chadron State College in Nebraska and then moved to Minnesota in 1996. Before running for Congress, he was a high school social studies teacher and football coach. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Minnesota's 1st congressional district in 2006, defeating six-term Republican incumbent Gil Gutknecht. Walz was reelected to the House five times before he was elected governor of Minnesota in 2018 and reelected in 2022. During his second gubernatorial term, he pushed for and signed a wide range of legislation including tax modifications, free school meals, bolstering state infrastructure, universal gun background checks, codifying abortion rights, and free college tuition for low-income families. On August 6, 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris announced Walz as her running mate in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. He has leaned into his Midwestern values and rural American background as a contrast to his opponents.