In the weeks following Donald Trump and Kamala Harris’ selection of their running mates, JD Vance and Tim Walz have been covered extensively as the country grows closer to electing one of them as the next vice president of the United States.
While the coverage has shed a lot of light on the job of vice president in general, the running mates themselves tend to have little to no sway in election results.
According to Christopher J. Devine, co-author of “Do Running Mates Matter?”: “Running mates are important, but their importance is overstated at times…it can matter at the margins, but we shouldn’t expect really dramatic effects,” he said in an interview with the University Press of Kansas. The research shows that in recent elections, the only real change vice presidential candidates have made to a ticket were negative and hurt the front-runner.
Historically, the role of vice president has been a relatively insignificant job. Their key role was to reside over the Senate and focus on legislative matters in Congress.
Randy Adkins, senior associate dean of the social sciences and graduate education professor at University of Nebraska at Omaha, referred to a quote from the first Vice President of the United States, John Adams. Adams noted that the role of vice president is “the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived, or his imagination conceived.”
Adkins said the role began changing in 1976 during the Jimmy Carter administration as he gave his Vice President, Walter Mondale, more of a policy position. In subsequent administrations, the role has evolved as veeps have a more active role in the executive branch of the government and serve as an important aide to the president.
On July 15, Donald Trump announced Vance as his running mate. Vance is from Middletown, Ohio. He is a former Marine and has an established career in law and venture capitalism. His most notable accomplishments are his book “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis” and being elected senator from Ohio in 2022.
Weeks later, Harris announced Walz as her running mate on Aug. 16. Walz was born and raised in various rural Nebraska towns. He was a member of the National Guard and had an extensive career as a high school teacher. Walz has served as a representative from Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District and is currently the governor of Minnesota.
Vance and Walz both hail from Midwestern states, where three – Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania – of the seven swing states are located. A swing-state, or battleground state, is a state where neither candidate has a clear majority, and both could reasonably win.
Central’s American Government and AP Government Teacher Jordan Boyer explained the reasoning behind how veeps are chosen. “Overall… they always want to pick someone who brings something else to the ticket,” he said. “If you are a life-long politician you want someone who is more down to Earth, if you are… a loud or an energetic person you want to balance that with somebody who is more reserved.”
Boyer mentioned a few reasons why these candidates were chosen, such as Harris wanting a running mate who is more relatable to the average American, like Walz who is able to live among his constituents, and Trump wanting someone significantly younger on the ballot with him.
