Gov. Tim Walz wasn’t the only Minnesotan to play a role in last Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate.
U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., helped coach U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, in tackling the Minnesota governor.
“My entire team spent a month going through every debate that Walz has done over the last 20 years, and my job was to play Walz (in preparation for the debate),” House Majority Whip Emmer told the St. Cloud Times.
Emmer said Walz is good at telling stories when he speaks, and that explaining this information played a crucial role in the debate as Vance focused on making a personal introduction while also talking about policy during preparation .
“The mainstream media has done (Vance) a terrible disservice by portraying him as … this unlikable, secretive character who … has really terrible opinions on various topics of the day,” Emmer said. “As people saw Tuesday night, this is a smart, thoughtful, compassionate man. Frankly, I think he had a chance to introduce himself to the American public for 90 minutes.”
Partly decisive for JD Vance’s victory
Vance came under fire earlier this election cycle when his girlfriend, Sofia Nelson, of Yale Law School, released letters and texts between the two. Nelson, a transgender public defender in Detroit, said the Republican vice presidential candidate has moved to the right-wing extremes, something he reportedly was not aligned with in New Haven.
JD Vance 2.0: GOP vice presidential candidate leans toward ‘Midwest nice’
Nelson told reporters from The New York Times and NPR that Vance would have constructive conversations about sexual orientation and gender identity and that he was accepting of his friends in the LGBTQ+ community. Since then, Vance has opposed the Respect for Marriage Act, which would federally protect same-sex couples, and introduced a bill to place “X” gender markers on U.S. passports.
‘I actually played a better Walz than Walz’
Emmer’s work preparing Vance was successful, as the senator was described as “a balanced, articulate messenger of Trump’s agenda.” His performance was reported as a win by USA TODAY, while Walz suffered a loss, citing the governor’s verbal stumbles and nervous appearance.
“A lot of the Vance people say I actually played a better Walz than Walz did on Tuesday,” Emmer said.
Corey Schmidt covers politics and courts for the St. Cloud Times. He can be reached at cschmidt@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared in St. Cloud Times: J.D. Vance’s Secret Debate Weapon: Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer
