In a bid to connect with male voters ahead of the upcoming US elections, Democratic Vice Presidential candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz participated in the annual Minnesota Governor’s Pheasant Hunting Opener on Saturday. However, his trip took an unexpected turn when he struggled to load his shotgun, a Beretta A400.

Dressed in hunting attire, including chaps and an orange vest, Walz was seen struggling while attempting to load shells into the semi-automatic shotgun. “It never fits quite right,” he said in a video that quickly made the rounds online. Despite his best efforts, the governor was unable to fire the gun or bag any pheasants during the hunt.

Here’s another angle of Tim Walz fumbling around with his gun during his pheasant “hunting” photo op.

Tampon has absolutely no idea what he’s doing. pic.twitter.com/EKj7Pp3EZN

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) October 12, 2024

Some on the internet were quick to mock the 60-year-old. 

A user commented, “PSA: No pheasants were injured during the filming of this campaign ad.”

PSA: No pheasants were injured during the filming of this campaign ad

— NWLivin (@NWLivin1) October 12, 2024

Another wrote, “So you’re telling me…. He’s never used one of these before ? Shocking.”

So you’re telling me…. He’s never used one of these before ? Shocking

— Yoda Trades (@MarketMovers10) October 12, 2024

“MAGA men are better than liberal men,” a user wrote. 

MAGA men are better than liberal men

— Tulsi Gabbard ???? (Parody) (@TulsiGabbardrep) October 12, 2024

“What a joke. You’d think he’d at least practice before this photo op,” read a comment. 

What a joke. You’d think he’d at least practice before this photo op.

— Paul A. Szypula ???????? (@Bubblebathgirl) October 13, 2024

Tim Walz, who once held a top rating from the National Rifle Association during his 12 years in Congress, has since shifted towards supporting stricter gun control measures.  

Initially, Walz held more conservative stances, earning “A” ratings from the National Rifle Association (NRA) while representing a rural Minnesota district from 2007 to 2019. However, after mass shootings like the 2017 Las Vegas tragedy, Walz distanced himself from the NRA, donating his NRA contributions to veterans’ charities and advocating for stronger gun control measures.

As Minnesota’s governor, he has supported universal background checks, red-flag laws, and an assault weapons ban, prioritising public safety over gun lobby positions. This has earned him criticism from the NRA, which labelled him a “political chameleon” for altering his stance as his political ambitions grew. However, groups like Everytown for Gun Safety praise Walz for balancing responsible gun ownership with common-sense safety laws.

File Image
| Photo Credit: AP

Early in-person voting begins Wednesday (October 9, 2024) in Arizona, making it the first of this year’s Presidential battleground States where all residents can cast a ballot at a traditional polling place ahead of Election Day.

The start of in-person voting in the closely contested State also drawing the presidential tickets, with both campaigns scheduling visits there this week.

Wednesday’s voting overlaps with campaign stops by both Vice Presidential nominees — Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, a Republican — who will hold separate events in Tucson on Wednesday (October 9).

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, is scheduled to host a rally in Phoenix on Thursday, while former President Donald Trump will hold one Sunday in Prescott Valley, a Republican stronghold about 144 kilometres north of Phoenix.

President Joe Biden defeated Trump by just 10,457 votes in 2020, a narrow margin that set off years of misinformation and conspiracy theories among Republicans who refused to acknowledge Biden’s win. It also has led to threats and harassment of election workers, prompting some election offices to boost security for their workers and polling place volunteers.

In Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, some schools have declined to serve as polling locations, citing harassment of workers and other safety concerns.

“Early voting, particularly by mail, has long been popular in Arizona, where nearly 80% voted before Election Day in 2020,” according to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Each of Arizona’s 15 counties is required to open at least one site for in-person voting, which runs until the Friday before the November 5 general election. In Maricopa County, a dozen voting centres are scattered around the metro Phoenix area.

Arizona had 4.1 million registered voters as of late July, according to the most recent tally by the Secretary of State’s Office. That figure likely is higher as both parties pushed to increase registration before Monday’s deadline.

Early in-person voting has been underway in other states for a couple of weeks. It begins next week in four more presidential swing states — Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Nevada.

As the U.S. presidential elections near, gossip is ironically growing outside the shadows of the candidates of the Democratic and Republican Party, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, respectively. The support cast is now more in the news, especially the vice-presidential nominees, Tim Walz (Democrat) and J.D. Vance (Republican). On their margins, other bit players are surfacing too. One is Liz Cheney, daughter of George Bush’s Vice President, Dick Cheney, and the other is Melania Trump, wife of Mr. Trump.

The sudden spotlight

It did not begin that way. While an estimated 58 million watched the 2020 vice presidential debate between Mike Pence and Kamala Harris, this time, on October 1, when Mr. Vance and Mr. Walz squared off, there were just 43 million viewers, a clear 25% drop.

There is good reason for that. With Mr. Trump, there are no waverers. One either loves him to distraction or hates every coiffed hair on his head. Against this backdrop, vice presidents matter little as most of the fences are free of sitters. Mr. Trump’s appeal has drummed them out and this further undermines who the vice president will be.

That both the contestants, Mr. Vance and Mr. Walz, were civil to each other made it even more inconsequential. There was no fur flying, nor blood on the floor. That would never have been the case if Mr. Trump had been in the ring. This is why it is surprising that the sequel is now attracting notice, well after the show is over.

Those in the Republican trenches, who are seasoned Trump warriors, are unhappy that Mr. Vance did not protest loudly enough that the Democrats “stole the 2020 elections”, as Republicans have been alleging for a long time. To make matters worse, he shook hands with Mr. Walz at the start and end of the debate and chatted amicably for a while with the Democrat. Why not an embrace, Trumpists ask? After all, by the end, the two looked like childhood sweethearts, parting sadly before going off to college.

An image makeover

Mr. Walz is having a hard time too, and for a similar reason. Democratic workers also view the debate’s congeniality negatively. Mr. Walz, they say, did not hit Mr. Vance hard enough for scandalously calling Haitians in Ohio “pet-eating, illegal migrants”. This gave Mr. Trump’s image a makeover, weakening Ms. Harris’s portrayal of him as a rule-breaking win-at-all-cost leader.

When Fred Warner, the 6 foot 3 inch, 230 pound American football linebacker, ran a touchdown late last month, one TV viewer said, without intending a double entendre, “That’s my Trump.” Linebackers rarely score touchdowns as they play defence and are amongst the strongest members in the team. Mr. Trump, like Mr. Warner, is big too and ready to break conventions, if that lets him win. Kid Rock, a rapper, said he supports Mr. Trump because he hates losing and not “because he’s a nice guy. I’m not electing the deacon of a Church.”

On the other hand, Ms. Harris’s running mate, Mr. Walz, radiates a good neighbourly feel; ever ready to mow your lawn or repair a fuse. Great, but can he fight back, if he has to? Americans love a fighter, especially in a politician.

The backstories behind Mr. Walz and Mr. Vance are now getting more attention as if they might tip the scales. As Minnesota Governor, Mr. Walz passed many liberal laws on abortion, affordable housing and LGBTQ rights. That doesn’t make him a soft touch, though. Larry Jacobs, a political scientist from Minnesota University , thinks Mr. Walz has “attack dog” skills. But on debate night, he was Mr. Affable.

Mr. Vance’s past too is in the news. He is widely acknowledged for his Yale Law School-honed knife sharp intellect. He can run through flab and pierce your heart clean. Yet, when he faced Mr. Walz, Mr. Vance was not the ripper he is often cut out to be. To his credit, his meteoric rise is phenomenal, considering his parents were dysfunctional.

EDITORIAL | Down to the wire: On the run-up to the U.S. presidential election

‘Republicans for Democrats’

The spotlight on Ms. Harris’s election trip to Wisconsin last week was to showcase Liz Cheney, rather than herself. A prominent Republican with a Republican heritage, Ms. Cheney now supports Ms. Harris for she fears Mr. Trump will harm democracy. John McCain’s son, Jimmy McCain, too is going with Ms. Harris, adding to the numbers of “Republicans for Democrats” — a never-before grouping.

These Republicans are clearly not giving up their ideology but claim it is a temporary measure for the lasting good of democracy. It is doubtful if they can swing voters towards Ms. Harris but it is a cheesy, uplift photo op that can do no harm. Ms. Cheney, if truth be told, was earlier effortlessly pushed to the Republican sidelines by Mr. Trump and nobody in the party stood up for her.

Melania Trump is also getting huge publicity because in her just-released, tell-all memoir, she goes sensationally against her husband and sides with pro-choice abortionists. This is the hottest potato issue in this election and something that Ms. Harris is banking on exploiting to the full. Democrats are wishing in vain for another debate when they could rub salt in Mr. Trump’s recently opened wound.

The U.S. is slowly returning to the boredom with elections that was apparent before the Trump-Harris debate. The climatic end is over three weeks away and newscasters are doing their best to keep the nation’s interest alive. That is probably why the supporting cast is centre stage. But before you switch off the lights, take a peek. Mr. Trump can pull out a late-night surprise.

Dipankar Gupta is a former Professor at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University

New York:

Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz and his Republican rival JD Vance debated each other on Wednesday as millions of Americans tuned in to the first, and most-likely, only vice-presidential debate before the country votes on November 5.

Unlike the presidential debate, which saw personal attacks by the contenders, the vice presidential debate was calm, structured and surprisingly civil as Mr Vance and Mr Walz engaged in debating mostly policy issues.

Instead of indulging in slander, both candidates stuck to criticism of the opposing presidential candidate. The debate came as a surprise to most, especially after a months-long ugly and divisive election campaign – that saw personal attacks, derogatory language, racist slurs, inflammatory rhetoric and even assassination attempts.

The US Vice Presidential debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz was calm, structured and surprisingly civil.

Mr Vance and Mr Walz too, have in the past, attacked each other during the election campaign, but for the vice-presidential debate, they struck a respectful tone.

THE MOST HEATED EXCHANGE OF THE DEBATE

The debate was cordial and focused mostly on policy matters but saw some tense moments towards the end when a question was asked to the Republican candidate on whether he agrees that Donald Trump lost the 2020 US election.

During the debate Mr Vance, who has said that he would not have voted to certify the result of the previous presidential election, evaded the question when asked if he would challenge this year’s vote if Donald Trump loses the election.

To this Mr Walz responded by blaming Donald Trump’s false claims of voter fraud which had instigated a mob attack on the US Capitol in January, 2021, which was an attempt to prevent the certification of Joe Biden’s election win in 2020.

Blaming Mr Vance, Mr Walz said, “He is still saying he (Tump) didn’t lose the election,”. He then directly questioned his rival by asking, “Did he (Trump) lose the 2020 election?” When the Republican candidate again dodged the question and went on to accuse Kamala Harris of pursuing online censorship of opposing views, the debate was at its most intense exchange.

“That’s a damning non-answer,” Mr Walz exclaimed.

Slamming JD Vance, Tim Walz said, “He is still saying he (Tump) didn’t lose the 2020 election”.

The two candidates, with vastly divergent views on every subject, debated each other on a series of subjects – from inflation to immigration, from taxes to the economy, from abortion to gender issues, the West Asia crisis and even climate change.

PUNCHES AND COUNTER-PUNCHES

Picking on each other’s presidential candidate and what they considered their vulnerabilities, both Mr Walz and Mr Vance dodged the verbal punches that came their way and responded with equal measure.

Describing Donald Trump as an “unstable” leader who puts the interest of billionaires before commoners, Mr Walz attacked Donald Trump over his policy on immigration. He slammed the former president for “pressuring the Republicans in Congress” to abandon the bipartisan bill on border security.

“Donald Trump had four years to do this. He promised you, Americans, saying how easy it will be.”

Mr Vance took a jab at the Democrats over the problem of inflation and economy, and repeatedly questioned Kamala Harris on why she has not done enough to address these important issues in the four years that she was vice-president in the Biden Administration.

Vance and Walz also clashed on pressing global issues, especially the crises in Europe and West Asia.

“If Kamala Harris has such great plans for how to address middle-class problems, then she ought to do them now – not when asking for promotion, but in the job the American people gave her 3-1/2 years ago,” Mr Vance said.

The two also clashed on pressing global issues, especially the crises in Europe and West Asia. Mr Walz called Donald Trump “too fickle” and “sympathetic” to strongmen like Putin and Netanyahu and said that Trump cannot be trusted to handle the conflict-prone region. Mr Vance rejected these claims and asserted that when Mr Trump was President, he had made the world “a more secure place” during his term in office.

Donald Trump, who was watching the debate live, was posting messages – mostly personal attacks – on his website ‘Truth Social’ in his trademark style. He attacked the moderators of the debate hosted by US television network CBS. He also called the Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz a man with “low IQ” and even called him “pathetic”.

During the debate, Republican candidate JD Vance, who had once been a strong Trump basher, blamed the media for its reporting on Donald Trump, and tried to set the record straight by saying “I was wrong about Donald Trump”.

He went on to explain that “I was wrong, first of all, because I believe some of the media stories that turned out to be dishonest fabrications of his record. But most importantly, Donald Trump delivered for the American people.”

THE ‘MINNESOTA NICE’ DEBATE

The Vice Presidential debate was between Democratic candidate Tim Walz, 60, a former high school teacher and current Governor of Minnesota with liberal views, and his Republican rival JD Vance, 40, a former venture capitalist, bestselling author and conservative firebrand US senator from Ohio with some very conservative views on issues like abortion.

Though both candidates portrayed themselves as sons of America’s Midwestern heartland, each had deeply opposing views on nearly every major issue that is gripping a vastly polarised United States of America.

By and large both candidates appeared calm and courteous, demonstrating a ‘Minnesota Nice’ attitude throughout the debate.

While both candidates tried to outperform one-another while dealing the occasional blow to the rival, by and large both men appeared calm and courteous, demonstrating a ‘Minnesota Nice’ attitude throughout the debate, occasionally even thanking each other.

At the end of the debate, reports and polls suggested that neither candidate dealt a ‘knockout punch’ to the other, nor could one outshine the other, resulting in a balanced debate with no clear winner.

Political analysts believe that vice presidential debates generally do not alter the outcome of a presidential election. That said, even a slight shift in public opinion could prove decisive with the race on a razor’s edge five weeks before election day.
 

New York:

US vice-presidential debates traditionally have little effect on the White House race, but with Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris neck-and-neck, the stakes were higher than usual in New York on Tuesday.

Trump’s running mate JD Vance and Harris’s VP pick Tim Walz both scored points in what is expected to be their only showdown, although the primary goal was always to avoid harming their running mates’ chances. 

Here are five takeaways from the debate.

New faces

Walz, who was virtually unknown on the national stage before the summer, had set expectations low — comparing Vance’s academic record as a “Yale law guy” and is own humble status as a “public school teacher.” 

He had a shaky start but improved as he relaxed into the conversation. Famously affable, Walz tried to weave in the occasional folksy anecdote but he often came across as defensive, dropping his trademark Midwestern charm.

Vance, who is known for his rhetorical prowess, was under pressure to make up for Trump’s dismal debate performance last month, when he was soundly beaten by Harris.

Trump had missed chances to attack Harris on immigration and inflation — failing to frame her as an incumbent — but Vance was able to score points where his boss failed.

Both candidates tackled policy specifics — the Middle East, climate change, the economy or the fentanyl crisis — which made for a more wonkish debate than the Trump-Harris showdown.

Awkward 

Walz was forced to explain claims that he was in Hong Kong for a teaching position in 1989 during the deadly Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests.

“I got there that summer and misspoke on this,” the governor said calling himself a “knucklehead” who “will get caught up in the rhetoric.”

Vance, who labelled Trump as “unfit for our nation’s highest office” before becoming a supporter and once said Trump “could be America’s Hitler” — was challenged on his remarks.

He said he had been deceived by false stories in the media and was wrong.

A proxy battle 

The real contest was between Harris and Trump, with their two stand-ins focusing their sharpest attacks on the top-of-the-ticket contest.

The Minnesota governor went after Trump for ignoring the advice of scientists and economists.

“If you’re going to be president, you don’t have all the answers. Donald Trump believes he does,” he said.

He attacked Trump for bragging about avoiding taxes, and for urging Republicans to vote against a tough bipartisan border security bill.

Vance tore into Harris on immigration and accused her of driving up prices, particularly housing costs, by allowing millions of migrants into the country.

Fact checks, mic cuts 

Debate fact-checking has made for an unusual controversy during this election cycle.

CBS said it would decline to debunk whoppers live on air but instead directed viewers to a blog offering real-time fact-checking.

There were a couple of on-air fact-checks of Vance — including one on man-made climate change and another on the legal status of some migrants.

This infuriated Vance, who began pushing back. The candidates’ mics were both muted briefly as they launched into a rare heated back-and-forth.

A gentler tone 

But, without the bombastic ex-president, proceedings largely resembled election debates that used to take place before the Trump era: policy-focused, lacking personal attacks and cloaked in apparent civility.

There was even a tender, human moment when Walz related a shocking story about his 17-year-old son Gus witnessing a shooting in a community centre.

Vance made a point of turning to Walz to sympathize with him.

The candidates brought up their families on more than one occasion, with Vance talking about his “three beautiful little kids.” 

Walz and Vance shook hands at the start, and again end of the debate as their wives joined them on stage.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New York:

US vice presidential contenders JD Vance and Tim Walz took on the crisis in the Middle East as they met Tuesday for what could be an unusually important undercard debate, competing for decisive votes weeks before the election.

The showdown between Walz, the Democratic Minnesota governor chosen by Kamala Harris, and Vance, the Republican senator from Ohio who is Donald Trump’s running mate, is likely to be the last of the 2024 campaign.

Trump has refused a second debate with Vice President Harris, meaning this could be the final chance to see the two tickets go head to head.

The first question of the night was on Iran’s missile attack on Israel and Walz immediately turned his fire on Trump’s foreign policy record, slamming the ex-president for his “turn towards” Russia’s Vladimir Putin” and his withdrawal of the United States from the 2015 Iran nuclear disarmament deal, known as the JCPOA.

“As much as Governor Walz just accused Donald Trump of being an agent of chaos, Donald Trump actually delivered stability in the world,” Vance countered.

“And he did it by establishing effective deterrence. People were afraid of stepping out of line.”

Vance, 40, and Walz, 60, each claim to be the true voice of the crucial swing states — including Michigan and Wisconsin — that could decide an election that remains on a knife edge with five weeks to go.

History suggests vice-presidential debates rarely move the dial much. But in an election campaign that has seen Harris step in for President Joe Biden unprecedentedly late in the game, Tuesday’s contest may have added significance.

Biden offered words of encouragement for Walz, telling him in a post on X ahead of his big night: “Coach, I got your back tonight!”

The race has seen Vance and Trump use increasingly divisive rhetoric and even falsely accuse immigrants of eating people’s pets — meaning the debate could make for fiery television.

“It will whet a lot of people’s appetites for November 5,” Thomas Whalen, an associate professor of social sciences at Boston University, told AFP.

But the debate itself risked being overshadowed by Mideast tensions, after Iran launched ballistic missiles against Israel, which said it largely repelled the attack.

Trump, visiting swing state Wisconsin on Tuesday, focused on the crisis, insisting that “if I were in charge, today’s attack on Israel never would have happened.”

Should Harris and Walz win, he warned, “the world goes up in smoke.”

Trump told Vance to “have fun” when he was asked what advice he would give, praising his running mate as a “warrior.”

Harris for her part pledged her “unwavering” commitment to the security of Israel after Iran launched what she called “a reckless and brazen attack” on America’s ally.

The CBS clash comes as several states dig out from enormous storm Helene, which has left at least 150 people dead and brought misery to many thousands more.

‘High drama’ 

Walz and Vance were each picked by their bosses to reach out to voters in the Midwestern battlegrounds where, thanks to the country’s idiosyncratic electoral college system, a few thousand votes could determine who wins the White House race.

Both are military veterans with strong blue-collar credentials. Vance authored the Rust Belt memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” while Walz boasts a folksy persona as a former teacher and football coach.

The similarities end there.

The combative Vance shares Trump’s penchant for courting controversy, whether by smearing Democrats as “childless cat ladies” or by boosting false claims that Haitians living in an Ohio town ate residents’ pets.

His goal will be to overcome polls that initially had him as one of the least popular VP nominees in history after a series of previous comments on women and abortion were unearthed.

“Vance has to be careful because I think a trap has been laid for him,” said Whalen.

The cheery Walz will be seeking to introduce himself to a public that barely knows him, after Harris’s swift rise to replace Biden as the Democratic nominee.

He became a hit with Democrats for branding Vance and Trump “weird” and for his progressive politics — but that will be a target for Vance as he and Trump seek to paint Walz and Harris as “Marxists.”

Vance “is going up against a moron, a total moron,” Trump said in an interview Monday on Fox Nation.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, left, and Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, shake hands as they arrive for a CBS News vice presidential debate, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024, in New York.
| Photo Credit: AP

Tim Walz and J.D. Vance are meeting for their first and possibly only vice presidential debate on Tuesday (October 1, 2024), in what could be the last debate for both campaigns to argue their case before the election.

The debate in New York hosted by CBS News gives Mr. Vance, a Republican freshman senator from Ohio, and Mr. Walz, a two-term Democratic governor of Minnesota, a chance to introduce themselves, make a case for their running mates, and go on the attack against the opposing ticket.

Tuesday’s matchup could have an outsized impact. Polls have shown Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump locked in a close contest, giving added weight to anything that can sway voters on the margins, including the impression left by the vice presidential candidates. It also might be the last debate of the campaign, with Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump teams failing to agree on another meeting.

The role of a presidential running mate is typically to serve as an attack dog for the person at the top of the ticket, arguing against the opposing presidential candidate and their proxy on stage. Both Mr. Vance and Mr. Walz have embraced that role.

Mr. Vance’s occasionally confrontational news interviews and appearances on the campaign trail have underscored why Mr. Trump picked him for the Republican ticket despite his past biting criticisms of the former President, including once suggesting Mr. Trump would be “America’s Hitler.”

Mr. Walz, meanwhile, catapulted onto Ms. Harris’ campaign by branding Mr. Trump and Republicans as “ just weird,” creating an attack line for Democrats seeking to argue Republicans are disconnected from the American people.

A new AP-NORC poll found that Mr. Walz is better liked than Mr. Vance, potentially giving the Republican an added challenge.

After a Harris-Trump debate in which Republicans complained about the ABC News moderators fact-checking Mr. Trump, Tuesday’s debate will not feature any corrections from the hosts. CBS News said the onus for pointing out misstatements will be on the candidates, with moderators “facilitating those opportunities.”

Mr. Trump, on Tuesday evening, said his advice to Mr. Vance was to “have a lot of fun” and praised his running mate as a “smart guy” and “a real warrior.”

As they’ve campaigned, both Mr. Walz and Mr. Vance have played up their roots in small towns in middle America, broadening the appeal of Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump, who hail from California and New York, respectively.

Mr. Walz, 60, frequently invokes his past job coaching a high school football team as he speaks about his campaign with Harris bringing “joy” back to politics and weds his critiques of the GOP to a message to Democrats that they need to “leave it all on the field.”

Mr. Walz, a Nebraska native, was a geography teacher before he was elected to Congress in 2006. He spent a dozen years there before he was elected governor in 2018, winning a second term four years later.

He also served 24 years in the Army National Guard before retiring in 2005. His exit and description of his service have drawn harsh criticism from Mr. Vance, who served in the Marine Corps, including in Iraq.

The 40-year-old Mr. Vance became nationally known in 2016 with the publication of his memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” which recounts his childhood in Ohio and his family’s roots in rural Kentucky. The book was cited frequently after Mr. Trump’s 2016 win as a window into working-class white voters who supported his campaign. Mr. Vance went to Yale Law School before working as a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley.

After the publication of his book, he was a prominent critic of Mr. Trump’s before he morphed into a staunch defender of the former President, especially on issues like trade, foreign policy and immigration.

Washington:

Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance and Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential pick Tim Walz — set to debate each other Tuesday — embody different versions of masculinity in an election that is dividing American men and women like never before.

Vance, on the Republican ticket, has a conservative definition of family.

The Ohio senator has been criticized for denouncing “childless cat ladies” who have no “direct interest” in the welfare of the country, he alleged, because they have no children.

As a former soldier from a lower-class family, Vance sees himself as the spokesman for the downtrodden Americans with whom he grew up.

Stringently opposed to abortion, Vance also criticizes progressive ideas of family which, in his view, encourage “people to shift spouses like they change their underwear.”

On the other side, Democrat Tim Walz strives to project a different image of the good family man — one who does not hesitate to show a more vulnerable side of himself, like when discussing the fertility problems he faced with his wife Gwen.

“I can remember praying each night for a phone call,” he recounted at the Democratic National Convention.

“The pit in your stomach when the phone would ring, and the absolute agony when we heard the treatments hadn’t worked.”

The Minnesota governor, a former teacher, also frequently retells the story of how he helped create the first LGBTQ student club at the high school where he taught, long before gay rights were widely socially accepted.

‘Toxic masculinity’ alternatives 

Walz, who also coached high school football and served 24 years in the National Guard, still plays into a classic male archetype, whether he is discussing his favourite hardware store on TikTok or boasting about his hunting skills.

In reference to Vance, for instance, Walz said: “I guarantee you he can’t shoot pheasants like I can.”

“The Harris campaign is offering alternatives to the ‘toxic masculinity’ that has captured the Republican party,” said Karrin Vasby Anderson, a communications studies professor at Colorado State University.

And Walz isn’t alone, she added.

Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, enthusiastically supports his wife and has no problem making himself the butt of the joke, including when he describes the awkward voicemail he left her after their first date.

The posturing is a far cry from Donald Trump’s “macho man” stance — one that he references by playing the Village People hit of the same name to open his rallies.

Anderson argues that societal gains by women and people of colour have “required white men to make adjustments to how they speak, what jokes they tell, how they comport themselves in romantic relationships, how they conduct themselves at work.”

“Some men don’t like having to change,” she added.

Gender divide 

According to recent polls, a growing number of young men are throwing their support behind Trump, whose rhetoric centres on strength, authority and even violence.

The Republican is capitalizing on this well of support by increasing the number of events he holds with influencers involved in cryptocurrency, video games and combat sports, many of whom have followings in the tens of millions.

In the extremely close race for the White House, Trump hopes to motivate an electorate that historically has not had a strong turnout at the polls.

Harris, on the other hand, often says that “the true measure of strength is based on who you lift up, not who you beat down.”

The Democrat, who fiercely defends abortion rights, is banking on mobilizing women, who vote in greater numbers than men in the United States.

The 2020 election saw 82.2 million women go to the polls, compared with 72.5 million men, according to the Center for American Women and Politics.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

A barrage of attacks on Tim Walz fueled by misinformation over his support for LGBTQ communities has failed to dent the US vice presidential candidate’s surging poll ratings, suggesting that voters are wearying of some “culture war” issues in a tight White House race.

The push, which includes false assertions that Walz signed a law protecting paedophiles, has been amplified by Donald Trump and top Republicans as political campaigning kicks into high gear ahead of the November 5 election.

Walz — the popular two-term governor of Minnesota — has also faced a torrent of misinformation about his legislative record on transgender rights and gender-affirming care.

Trump recently heaped scorn on Walz, saying he was “heavy into the transgender world.”

Trump’s supporters have mocked him as “Tampon Tim,” falsely asserting that he forced schools to make tampons and pads available in boys’ toilets after he signed a law that requires schools to make the products available for free for menstruating students.

But — unlike an issue such as abortion, which has driven voters to polls at local, state and national levels since the Supreme Court overturned the right to the procedure in 2022 — the attacks appear to have failed to move the needle on Walz.

“People are getting ‘issue fatigue’ with regards to the culture wars,” Todd Belt, director of the political management program at George Washington University, told AFP.

“As the election gets closer, people want to hear out kitchen-table issues that have a material effect on their well-being.”

‘Real issues’ 

“Inflation is Americans’ most important issue,” said an Economist-YouGov poll in mid-August, with 26 per cent expressing concern about prices.

When asked about other issues “important” to Americans, jobs and the economy, immigration, healthcare and climate change were listed as the top answers.

Abortion, which many Americans regard as a hot-button culture war issue, appeared on the list, at sixth place.

“Voters are insisting that politicians focus instead on the real issues facing our nation, including inflation, abortion rights, and climate change,” said GLAAD president Sarah Kate Ellis.

Her statement followed a survey in March which concluded that campaigning on anti-transgender issues was a “losing strategy,” with candidates who frequently discuss them creating more opposition than support for their campaigns.

That has not stopped both Republicans and Democrats from putting the culture wars at the centre of their campaigns, and in a volatile election cycle issues other than abortion could yet break through.

But for now, despite the hammering of his pro-LGBTQ record, Walz has stayed easily ahead of Republican vice-presidential nominee J.D. Vance in national polling.

‘People are tired’ 

Much of the rhetoric against Walz involves children, including a viral claim across social media that he signed a bill last year protecting paedophiles in Minnesota, AFP fact-checkers reported.

The false claim, which garnered tens of thousands of views on sites such as Instagram, deploys a long-standing disinformation trope tying the LGBTQ community to paedophilia.

While lawmakers did remove a reference to paedophilia in the state’s human rights law, experts including Naomi Cahn, a University of Virginia professor, said the move does not affect the “criminal laws concerning sexual contact with a child.” 

Other posts falsely accuse Walz of allowing the state to terminate parental custody if trans children are stopped by their parents from receiving gender-affirming care.

“Tim Walz signed a bill that lets the state take away (your) kids… in the name of ‘gender-affirming care,'” conservative talk show host Megyn Kelly wrote on the platform X, a falsehood that garnered over 2.5 million views and was widely shared by Trump supporters.

Walz battled such misinformation after he signed the Trans Refuge Bill last year, granting legal protection to transgender people who come to Minnesota to seek medical care, even if the treatment is illegal in their home state.

Top Republicans such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin did see electoral success in past voting cycles by stoking anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.

But polls showed that — unlike Democrats with abortion rights — Republicans had little success mobilizing voters around anti-trans issues in the 2022 midterm elections.

“It’s not working right now” before the November election, Belt said, adding that “people are tired” of the messaging.

“You can’t win an election just by being against something.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)