How the Debates Changed the Race

Chelsea Stahl

Intro

In a close presidential election where the undecided voters hold the decision in their palms, the presidential and vice presidential debates can hit the odds of either candidate like a tsunami. So in this close election, come and view how the debates changed the race.

Trump Vs Biden

Gerald Herbert

This debate was hard for people of each party to watch. The candidates struggled to say on topic and the age of both candidates were made incredibly apparent through stalls and name calling. The candidates poked fun of each others' golf games for longer than they answered the asked question to the disappointment of viewers everywhere.

The aftermath of this debate swung the odds of the election in Trump's favor. Televised debates often rely more on the appearance and suave of the candidates than the

actual facts to the general public, so despite candidates sometimes dropping false statistics, it truly matters how they look doing it. In this debate Biden was slow on his feet and often lost his train of thought while speaking. The public was already concerned about the age of the current president and this did nothing to alleviate their fears. On the contrary, Trump was smoother then Biden which made the undecided population feel that he would be better suited for the stressful presidential position.

After this debate the democratic party gets moving. It doesn't take very long for Biden to step down and the party nominate Vice President Kamala Harris as the new presidential candidate.

Trump vs Harris

ABC News

This marks the first debate between Harris and Trump campaigns. The numbers up to this point had been fluctuating between the two sides and this was an opening for Kamala Harris to gain a lead and talk directly to the important undecided voters for the first time.

Kamala was viewed as very collected while this time, Trump was seen as the scattered candidate. Kamala split the debate between discussing her policies and debunking accusations made by Trump while Trump spent most of the debate putting down Kamala and piecing together his policies. While both candidates had their stumbles, Former President Donald Trump unfortunately had two lines that suck with the population, "They're eating the dogs" about Haitian immigrants in Ohio and "I have concepts of a plan" about healthcare.

Most political experts say that Harris was the victor of the debate and the polls of the swing states agreed. After the debate Harris pulled ahead by about three percent which is a much greater magnitude than the difference previous weeks.

Vance Vs Walz

Chip Somodevilla

By the time the vice presidential debate occurred in October, most people could guess that there wouldn't be another presidential debate, so this would be the last of the election season. The biggest take away from this debate was the overwhelming civility of it. Both candidates were respectful to the other and put most of their punches towards their running mates who were not in the room. Both vice presidential candidates used very common debate tactics such as avoiding hard questions and steering the question towards the strong aspects of their campaign.

The debate was close and for a large duration of the night the winner was unclear. However after the debate, JD Vance narrowly took the victory. This was mostly because Tim Walz stumbled over some of his words and admitted to misspeaking often which allowed JD Vance to look incredibly smooth and calculated in comparison. In the end, this once again narrowed the election with fluctuations similar to before the debate season started under the Harris Campaign.

Final Thoughts

It is still hard to say how the election will unfold in the coming days and the clock is ticking but it is important to see the course of the election in your search to understand it. So, the debates have definitely shifted the presidential race, but the election remains incredibly close so get out there and cast your vote.

Works Cited

KIM, MIN, and NICHOLAS RICCARDI. “Takeaways from the first Biden-Trump 2024 presidential debate.” AP News, 28 June 2024, https://apnews.com/article/debate-trump-biden-presidential-campaign-44e71c900a1c4af2bed93041fdfe923d. Accessed 3 November 2024.

“9 takeaways from the Vance-Walz VP debate.” PBS, 2 October 2024, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/9-takeaways-from-the-vance-walz-vp-debate. Accessed 3 November 2024.

“Polls show Harris gaining after the presidential debate.” ABC News, 17 September 2024, https://abcnews.go.com/538/polls-show-harris-gaining-after-presidential-debate/story?id=113745432. Accessed 3 November 2024.