Pollster and political communications expert Frank Luntz showered Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance with praise for his performance in his debate with Democratic nominee Tim Walz, telling CNN that his focus group showed “overwhelming” movement toward Vance on Wednesday.
In a segment with anchor Sara Sidner — who stated that an “overwhelming majority” of his focus group believed Vance won the debate — Luntz said that voters “loved both candidates,” wished they were at the top of their respective tickets, and “gave them faith in democracy,” but were especially impressed by Vance.
“In terms of Vance, they were shocked that the Vance that they’ve seen up to this point was not the JD Vance of last night: measured, thoughtful, emotional, willing to agree with his opponent, not divisive,” said Luntz. “The language that they used to describe him tells me that he has been misused on the campaign so far, that he would be far better communicating Donald Trump’s agenda, and vision, and purpose than the attack dog kind of strategy that they’ve been using up to now.”