EXCLUSIVEWho won the VP debate? J.D. Vance declared the winner over Tim Walz in Daily Mail poll

Donald Trumps running mate J.D. Vance outperformed his Democratic rival Tim Walz in their one and only debate of the 2024 race, according to DailyMail.coms exclusive snap poll.

The high-stakes showdown on CBS just 35 days before the general election was a chance for the vice presidential picks to prove their credentials to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

The candidates tangled over abortion, immigration, gun violence and the Middle East and took plenty of opportunities to present each other as extreme or weird.

They also bigged up their bosses, Trump and Kamala Harris, in the midst of the final campaign sprint in what is shaping up to be one of the closest races in decades. 

But it was Vance who left the best impression with viewers, after a strong start against his nervy opponent and despite dodging a question on if Trump lost the 2020 election.

According to the DailyMail.com/J.L Partners poll of 801 likely voters, 50 percent said Vance won the debate compared to just 43 percent who said Walz was the victor.

Donald Trumps running mate J.D. Vance outperformed his Democratic rival Tim Walz in their one and only debate of the 2024 race, according to DailyMail.coms snap poll

Seven percent of the respondents were unsure who came out on top.

James Johnson, co-Founder of J.L. Partners and DailyMail.com pollster, said its clear J.D. Vance pulled off the best performance of the night.

But whether it will have an impact on the state of the general election is a different matter.  

JD Vance can take a bow after his debate performance, with likely voters saying he did the best, Johnson said.

This was no self-destruction moment for Walz, whose approval rating improved in viewers’ minds after the debate, and is seen as being the right pick by Harris.

What is perhaps most striking in the data is how little this looks set to matter. 

Despite handing Vance the win, voters did not change their preference for vice president, or how they would vote in November.

Of the poll respondents, 46 percent said before the debate they were planning to vote for Trump and Vance. This was the same by the end of the night.

Half (50 percent) said they intended to back Harris and Walz. That figure went down by one percent as a result of the debate. 

Vance had a good night, but it might end up having more impact on his own personal political brand than on whether Trump ends up in the White House on January 20th.

Another viewer who was full of praise for Vance was the former president, who spent the night commentating on every development on the New York stage. 

JD crushed it! Walz was a Low IQ Disaster - Very much like Kamala, Trump said in one of his many Truth Social posts during the evening.

He added: Our Country would never be able to recover from an Administration of these two. Can you imagine them representing us with sharp, fierce Foreign Leaders? I can’t! 

The Republican nominee hurled insults at Walz, by calling him Tampon Tim and mocking his frantic note-taking. 

He also tore into CBS moderators Margaret Brennan and Norah O’Donnell by calling them young ladies and claiming they were biased against his vice presidential pick.

Walz had a jittery start when asked if he would launch a preemptive strike on Iran in response to its ballistic missile attack on Israel.

The Minnesota Governor was visibly nervous in the first exchanges while Vance delivered more poised and polished responses.

Walz then had two major blunders. 

The first was when he was tripped up by a question about his claims he was in Hong Kong teaching during the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests in China in 1989.

J.D. Vance takes his wife Ushas hand on the stage after his one and only vice presidential debate with Tim Walz 

Local media reports from the time put him in his home state of Nebraska, and had him planning to China months after the demonstrations.

I got there that summer and misspoke, Walz said. That’s what I’ve said. So I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests, went in, and from that I learned a lot.

During an exchange on gun violence, he recalled how his 17-year-old son Gus had witnessed a school shooting.

In an unfortunate slip of the tongue he then said: Ive become friends with school shooters.

Its unclear what he meant to say.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his wife Gwen Walz walk from stage after a vice presidential debate 

Walz had a jittery start when asked if he would launch a preemptive strike on Iran in response to its ballistic missile attack on Israel

In a moment of brutal honesty - with the folksy attitude that has dominated his campaign - he admitted: Im a knucklehead sometimes.

I will talk a lot. I will get caught up in the rhetoric. 

Moderators pointed out that J.D. Vance has previously said he would not have certified the last election and pressed him on whether he would challenge the 2024 election results.

Vance sidestepped the question at first by focusing on issues he wants to talk about. But he turned back to the topic and downplayed Trumps role on January 6.

He said Trump believed there were problems with the last election but defended the ex-presidents response. He then argued the real threat to democracy is censorship.

Walz called Vances response to the question a damning non-answer and later called it troubling.

The democracy is bigger than winning an election, Walz said. You shake hands and then you try and do everything you can to help the other side win.

The governor added that when this election is over we need to shake hands and the winner needs to be the winner.

Vance and Walz had a largely civilized and substantive debate about policies ranging from immigration to health care, the economy and taxes, abortion rights and more

Vance repeatedly referred to the Kamala Harris administration, trying to tie the vice president to President Joe Bidens policies.

When did Iran and Hamas and their proxies attack Israel? It was during the administration of Kamala Harris, Vance said early on in the debate. 

So Gov. Walz can criticize Donald Trump’s tweets, but effective, smart diplomacy and peace through strength is how you bring stability back to a very broken world.

Vance also claimed that Harris, not Biden, signed the executive order that undid most of Trumps immigration policies.

J.D. Vance gets fact-checked 

Trumps running mate ended up being fact-checked by moderators during the debate even though CBS News signaled it would not be fact checking the candidates. 

Brennan fact-checked Vance, noting that the Haitian immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio are in the country legally.

That prompted an angry response Vance and ended with candidates mics getting cut.

During a back-and-forth on immigration, Vance talked about how the Haitians were overwhelming resources in the Ohio community.

Thank you governor, and just to clarify, for our viewers, Springfield, Ohio does have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal status, temporary protected status, Brennan inserted.

Thank you, Margaret. The rules were that you guys werent going to fact-check and since youre fact-checking me, I think its important to say whats actually going on, Vance said.

When Vance and Walz kept speaking on the subject, their mics were cut.

A very civil debate with handshakes and embraces between their wives  

Vance and Walz had a largely civilized and substantive debate about policies ranging from immigration to health care, the economy and taxes, abortion rights and more.

Right off the bat, both candidates shook hands before the debate even started. It was different from when Harris had to walk over and address Trump at the top of their presidential debate last month.

During the debate, both candidates even acknowledged their agreement at times.

In a focus group on CNN afterwards, one undecided voter called it an unexpectedly warm and fuzzy debate.