Vance hits the VP debate stage for first and only time

Why it matters: Vice presidential debates often don't impact the race, but the matchup between a first-term MAGA senator and a Minnesota teacher/coach-turned-politician offers a compelling contrast in styles.

• It also may be the last time Americans see the two campaigns matched up on national TV, as former President Trump has declined to debate VP Kamala Harris a second time.

How to watch: The 90-minute debate starts at 9pm on CBS and will be carried by other major networks and platforms.

State of play: The candidates are meeting a week before Ohio's absentee voting schedule begins.

• The GOP ticket holds a comfortable polling lead here, though our pivotal Senate race is much closer.

Flashback: Vance, 40, rose to prominence after his 2016 memoir "Hillbilly Elegy" became a NY Times bestseller.

• He was once a vocal critic of Trump, but evolved into a fierce defender of the president — who in turn endorsed Vance in his 2022 election for U.S. Senate.
• Vance is vying to be the state's first vice president in history.

Between the lines: Both candidates were chosen as VP nominees based on the idea they could deliver working-class voters to their respective tickets.

Zoom in: Vance has been a familiar face, giving many more interviews and press conferences than Walz and Harris combined.

• He could portray Walz as weak and overwhelmed by civil unrest in Minneapolis that followed the police killing of George Floyd in his state in 2020.

The other side: Walz, who thinks of himself as a bad debater, is privately nervous about letting Harris down Tuesday night, CNN's Edward-Isaac Dovere reports.

• He has famously called Vance and Trump "weird" and could attack their repeated falsehoods about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield.

More on the debate…