Polls that were 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 a majority of Americans feel the Republican outperformed his Democratic counterpart.
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.