Will the Vice Presidential Debate Matter?

Seth Masket: “Loyal readers will notice that I keep saying debates don’t matter much and then they keep mattering. The Trump-Biden debate was arguably the most consequential presidential debate ever, resulting in a candidate underperforming and dropping out a few weeks later. The Trump-Harris debate didn’t have quite as big an effect, but it was seen as a pretty historic blowout and built up a lot of support for Harris’ fledgling presidential campaign. But what can we expect from this week’s vice presidential debate?”

“It’s safe to say this won’t affect the polling in the election much, simply because these events tend not to, and generally matter considerably less than presidential match-ups do. Vice presidential debates usually sound like an awesome battle royale in theory, but they rarely amount to all that much in execution.”