Polls carried out just hours after Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) took the debate stage on Tuesday night found that viewers were almost evenly split on who won the debate, with Vance edging out over his Democratic counterpart by 1%.
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The CBS News poll found that 42% of debate watchers felt Vance outperformed Walz, whom 41% dubbed the victor, while around 17% of respondents said it was a tie.
While previous presidential debates have left a bad taste in the mouths of viewers because of verbal sparring and angry outbursts, Tuesday night’s showdown was quite the opposite.
According to the poll, 88% of those who watched the debate felt it was generally positive, compared to just 12% who felt it was negative.
Another survey highlighted similar results, with CNN finding that most viewers felt Vance won the debate, though the margins were just as slim, with 50% backing Vance and 49% choosing Walz as the winner.
CNN also noted in its poll that viewers reported feeling surprised by Vance in his performance, as going into the night, Walz held a 54% to 45% lead over his Republican counterpart. Still, Vance didn’t emerge with more favorable views, as the survey found that 41% of respondents viewed him favorably, while 44% viewed him unfavorably.
A snap poll from Politico showed that Americans were evenly split between Vance and Walz, with most responding along party lines, while 34% of independents said Walz won and 25% said Vance won.
When asked who would make the better vice president, 92% of Democrats said Walz would, while 91% of Republicans said Vance would. When independents were asked the same question, 44% chose Walz, and 36% chose Vance.
The polls were all conducted in the hours after the debate, with the CBS/YouGov poll having a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 points, the CNN/SSRS poll having a margin of error of plus or minus 5.3 percentage points, and the Politico poll having a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.
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