Ohio elected official who prepped Dem for JD Vance debate reveals weaknesses Walz can exploit

Before Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022, he debated then-Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio). And the man who played Vance in Ryan's debate prep has a few tips for Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz as he prepares to debate Vance next week.

Politico recently interviewed Danny O'Connor, a local elected official in Ohio's capital city of Columbus, about what he learned from studying the Hillbilly Elegy author ahead of his Senatorial campaign debate. O'Connor warned Walz to be ready for Vance to lie frequently and to be ready for "a million iterations" of Vance, saying the Ohio Republican "changes every election cycle."

"There’s no honesty there. Even since 2022, he pivots in every way, shape and form for whoever is telling him he needs to pivot. So the hard part about prepping for Vance is that he is just one of the most dishonest human beings I’ve ever encountered or read about or studied," O'Connor said. "So whenever you’re prepping for someone like that, it’s kind of like if you prep for a game in football, and the other team usually runs the I formation, but they come out and run shotgun the entire game."

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"But with Vance, you can kind of figure it out by just following what Trump’s saying. Or Project 2025 is saying," he added.

O'Connor also revealed that there are several openings for Walz if he knows what to watch for. He noted that while Vance is very disciplined in staying on message, he has exhibited certain patterns — like laughing during uncomfortable moments — that Walz could exploit.

"Generally he’ll laugh if something is absolutely true that he needs to diffuse," O'Connor said. "He thinks he’s the smartest person in the room, and he’s just going to try and be smart and funny, and it just doesn’t work, because he’s not really that funny or smooth."

However, he cautioned Walz to not allow himself to get caught off-guard during the debate. O'Connor said Vance is a skilled debater given his ability to relentlessly push a certain narrative and maintain message discipline.

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"He’s going to do exactly what he’s told to do by the folks in the Trump campaign, the folks who are cooking up Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation, folks like that. And so he’s going to repeat, rinse, repeat what the message is," O'Connor told Politico. "He’s going to throw out stuff — attacking the vice president in a way that doesn’t really make any sense, but it’s stuff that they’ve poll-tested, that they think makes sense. So it will be an exercise in dishonesty, but it will be consistent, and it will be disciplined."

Both Vance and Walz will face off in the vice presidential debate on Tuesday, October 1 on CNN. It will likely be the final debate of the 2024 campaign cycle, as Trump has said he wouldn't participate in any more debates with Vice President Kamala Harris after their September 10 face-off on ABC.

Click here to read Politico's full report.

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