Ohio Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are set to meet face-to-face in New York on Tuesday for what is currently the only debate between the Trump and Harris campaigns left on the schedule before Election Day. 

The vice presidential hopefuls will make the case for their respective tickets in the CBS News-hosted event, with both campaigns talking up their opponents as skilled debaters in the lead up to Tuesday. Vance, the Republican serving his first term in the Senate, and Walz, a two-term Democratic governor and former House member, have never spoken to an audience as large as the tens of millions of Americans expected to watch on Tuesday night.

On Monday, the Trump campaign previewed a debate strategy that involves battering Walz and Vice President Kamala Harris with dark and misleading depictions of immigration and violent crime, while the Harris campaign played down the significance of the debate and presented it as an opportunity for Walz to continue introducing himself and Harris with just 35 days before the election. While vice presidential debates historically have had little impact on polling, experts say a poor performance could hurt more than a good one could help. 

“We don't really know these people," Casey Burgat, director of the legislative affairs program at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management, told Spectrum News. "We know their names, probably, if we're paying attention. But really how they deliver a message, if they're prone to certain characteristic flaws that can be exacerbated by someone else's answer – we can get to know them on a more personal level, both positively and negatively. It may not sway a ton of minds, but should a gaffe happen, or should someone lose their cool or make a big mistake, that can have a detrimental message or a detrimental impact on a campaign that we just know there's not that much margin left in.”

The Vance-Walz matchup comes just weeks after Harris and former President Donald Trump met for their one and, so far, only debate. Post-debate polls and punditry suggest Harris outperformed Trump, but the two campaigns have yet to work out a follow-up, as the former president has said he’s uninterested.

“In two days, I know we will cheer on Coach Walz when he debates JD Vance," Harris said at a rally in Las Vegas on Sunday night. "But, listen, also their debate should not be the last word. I’m trying to debate Donald Trump again. As you say here in Vegas, I’m all in. I’m all in, even if my opponent is ready to fold.”

Tuesday’s 90-minute debate moderated by CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan is set to begin at 9 p.m. ET. It will have similar ground rules to the debate between Trump and Harris, including that there will be no audience, no candidate interaction with staff during breaks and no pre-written notes or props allowed.

One major difference from the presidential debates this year and Tuesday’s is that each man’s microphone will be unmuted, with CBS News saying they reserve the right to cut the microphones off if necessary. And the moderators will not be live fact-checking the candidates, CBS News said, after ABC News’ moderators did with a handful of Trump’s statement in last month's debate. CNN’s moderators did not jump in during Trump’s June debate with President Joe Biden. 

Candidates will stand behind podiums for the duration of the debate. Walz will stand at the podium to the right of the screen, and Vance will stand at the podium on the left side. Vance won the virtual coin toss last week and elected to go second with his closing statement. There will not be opening statements. 

The candidates will get two minutes to answer a question, and the other candidate will get two minutes to respond, followed by one minute for further rebuttals. Candidates may receive an additional minute to follow up at the moderators' discretion.

As he and Trump have relentlessly done on the campaign trail, Vance plans hit Walz and Harris on immigration and blame her for violent crime, Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller told reporters Monday, calling the topics “a very big part” of the Ohio senator’s plans.

“This will be something that comes up in quite granular detail,” Miller said, promising Vance will focus on the “human impact” and highlight violent crimes allegedly committed by immigrants.

“Nobody is safe anymore," Miller added, arguing that undocumented migrants are placing a strain on resources and contributing to "the lack of safety" across the country.

Miller specifically said that Vance will discuss Springfield, Ohio, a city with a community of immigrants from Haiti that Vance and Trump falsely claimed were eating local pets. Trump notably and baselessly stated in his debate with Harris that “in Springfield, they're eating the dogs. The people that came in. They're eating the cats.” There is no evidence to support those claims, which have been denounced by local officials, including Ohio’s Republican governor and Springfield’s Republican mayor. 

Trump’s campaign played up Walz as an experienced politician and debater who “will not hesitate to lie on command.” They also previewed attacks on Walz’s military service and painted him as a “radical” who “is nothing more than [California Gov.] Gavin Newsom in a flannel suit,” as House Majority Whip Tom Emmer put it on the press call. Emmer, a Minnesota Republican, has been portraying Walz in debate prep for Vance, in a performance Miller described as “masterful.”

“Vance is prepared to wipe the floor with Tim Walz and expose him for the radical liberal he is,” Emmer said.

For Walz’s part, he’s been sparring with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a source familiar with the governor’s debate prep said. Buttigieg previously played the role of then-Vice President Mike Pence during Harris’ 2020 debate prep.

“I think there's a bunch of people, including him, who know deep down how bad Donald Trump is for the country, realized that they could gain power by attaching themselves to him, and they did it,” Buttigieg said of Vance in an interview with The New York Times’ Ezra Klein last week. “And you know, that's one thing that he has in common with a very different Midwesterner, Mike Pence. That worked out really poorly for Mike Pence, and that's part of why it's going to be JD Vance sitting on that stage.”

Biden White House alumni Rob Friedlander and Zayn Siddique, the latter of whom was part of Harris’ debate prep for her matchup with Trump, are leading the prep sessions alongside longtime Walz aide Chris Schmitter — who led Walz gubernatorial races and debate prep — Walz’s chief of staff and veteran U.S. diplomat Liz Allen, and Harris-Walz Communications Director Michael Tyler, according to a campaign source.

“This debate will serve as another clear opportunity for Gov. Walz to present Vice President Harris’ winning vision of a new way forward to the American people who are ready to turn the page on Donald Trump,” said Emily Soong, a spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign.

The Harris campaign also previewed an attack on Vance and Trump’s health care plan, or lack thereof, in a release Monday noting millions could lose coverage if Trump follows through with his pledge to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. The Trump campaign hit back, highlighting Walz’s previous support for single-payer health care. 

Like the Trump campaign did with Walz, the Harris campaign is playing up Vance’s debate skills. Walz began setting expectations for Vance high in the moments after the Trump-Harris debate, telling MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that night that “as a United States senator, a Yale Law guy, he'll come well prepared.” A source familiar with the Harris campaign’s thinking portrayed Vance as a skilled debater seeking to make up for Trump’s performance against Harris while also downplaying the significance of the debate in the grand scheme of the election season.

Regardless of its significance to the race, viewers can expect an even more heated showing by the candidates than the presidential debate, said Burgat, the George Washington University scholar.

“What they do is be the bulldogs that the main candidates don't typically want to be,” he said. “So look for this to be a more nasty debate than what we're typically used to seeing.”

Immediately following the debate, Walz and Harris will tour central Pennsylvania on a campaign bus Wednesday while Vance will make appearances in swing state Michigan. Trump has two rallies scheduled in Wisconsin for Tuesday prior to the debate, but nothing yet scheduled for Wednesday.