‘He was very smooth’: Swing state voters tell CBS News they think JD Vance won debate

A majority of Michigan voters in a panel on Tuesday told CBS News they believed Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance outperformed Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz in their vice presidential debate.

Vance and Walz went head-to-head Tuesday on CBS News in what could be the final debate of the 2024 presidential campaign. Four out of six voters in Grand Rapids told CBS News national correspondent Jericka Duncan they felt Vance emerged victorious, citing his style, immigration policy, and answer on abortion.

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“He was very smooth,” a Republican named Bill Mulvey, who thought Vance won the debate, said. A Harris-Walz supporter named Arick Davis, who thought Walz won, agreed about Vance but told Duncan he “appreciated” that Walz provided what he considered to be more substantive answers to the moderators’ questions.

A former President Donald Trump supporter named Max Battle, who thought Vance won, told Duncan his opinion on immigration, criticizing the policy of President Joe Biden and Harris.

“There are people who want to come here for a better life. And there is a legal and proper way to do that and that needs to be followed. You should expect that if you try to enter a country illegally, to be turned away,” Battle said. “It is a mess that we have found ourselves in over the last four years with the extremely heightened immigration and families coming here, children being born here and then what are we going to do?”

A voter named Ellie Berkey, who was leaning toward Harris before the debate, appeared to confirm to Duncan that she is now more inclined to cast a ballot for Trump and Vance following the debate.

“I really liked that Vance said that he was pro-family and not necessarily pro-life or pro-choice. It was pro-family, which I really appreciated. And I think you have to take a lot of considerations into account when talking about abortion,” she said. “There’s a lot to consider. A lot of medical factors, no matter at what stage of your pregnancy. So it’s a hard one to decide for me on that one ’cause I don’t think that there was still a clear answer on what his opinion was or what their opinion will be. But I liked his view on it that it was more pro-family.”

Walz made multiple blunders during the debate, including when he faced questions about a CNN report finding that he had falsely claimed to have been in Hong Kong during the Tiananmen Square massacre. He also claimed he was “friends with school shooters” while answering a query on gun control.

CBS News’s poll found debate viewers nearly evenly divided on who won the debate. Harris is currently leading Trump by 1.4% in Michigan, according to the RealClearPolling average.

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