Registered voters who watched Tuesday’s debate between vice presidential candidates Tim Walz and JD Vance were sharply divided over which candidate performed better, according to an instant poll from CNN with observers of the debate conducted by SSRS, with 51% saying Vance did the better job and 49% choosing Walz.
Before the debate, the same voters gave Walz the edge as the candidate they expected to perform strongest, 54% to 45%.
Poll results reflect views on the debate only among voters who tuned in and are not representative of the views of the entire voting public. Debate watchers in the poll were three points more likely to be aligned with Democrats than Republicans, resulting in a public that is about five percentage points more inclined toward Democrats than all registered voters nationally.
That’s a difference from the audiences for this year’s two presidential debates, both of which were slightly more Republican-leaning than the potential American electorate overall.
Viewers’ sharply divided opinions on the outcome of Tuesday’s debate also contrast sharply with the public’s more decisive reaction following this year’s most important debates. In June, two-thirds of debate viewers thought former President Donald Trump outperformed President Joe Biden, while a 63% majority who watched the September debate between Trump and Kamala Harris said the vice president did a better job. .
In the vice presidential debate four years ago, viewers saw Harris as the clear winner over then-Vice President Mike Pence, backing her debate performance by a 21-point margin. Debate viewers were more divided in 2016 (when they favored Pence over Democrat Tim Kaine by a six-point margin) and 2012 (when they favored Republican Paul Ryan over Biden by a four-point margin). In 2008, debate watchers gave Biden the victory over Republican Sarah Palin by a 15-point margin.
The research of CNN was conducted via text message with 574 registered U.S. voters who said they watched the debate on Tuesday, and the poll results are representative of the opinions of debate watchers only.
Respondents were recruited to participate prior to the debate and were selected through a survey of members of the SSRS Opinion Panel, a nationally representative panel recruited using probability-based sampling techniques. The results for the full sample of debate observers have a margin of error of plus or minus 5.3 percentage points.
This content was originally published in Survey shows voters divided over debate between Vance and Walz on the CNN Brasil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
