JD Vance performed better than Tim Walz on the subject of climate change during the vice presidential debate, a sample of voters told The Washington Post.
The paper asked uncommitted, swing-state voters about how they thought the two candidates performed during Tuesday night’s debate.
Of the people surveyed, 13 said that Vance was stronger on the topic of climate change, while 9 said Walz was.
During the debate, Vance argued that investing in manufacturing jobs was the most effective approach to tackling climate change, while Walz said that America should invest in clean energy technologies and take steps to reduce carbon emissions.
Climate change has often been one of the Democratic Party‘s strongest issues.
An Ipsos poll from last year showed that Democrats were more trusted than Republicans on climate change by 39 percent to 13 percent, which was the biggest gap among all topics asked.
The Republican Party, by contrast, has historically cast doubt on whether human-driven climate change is real. While the party has lately largely moved away from climate denial, it still does not make climate change a policy priority.
During Tuesday’s debate, Vance cast doubt on the role carbon emissions play in driving climate change, which scientific experts generally say are a significant factor contributing to the warming of the planet.
“This idea that carbon emissions drives all the climate change. Well, let’s just say that’s true, just for the sake of argument, so we’re not arguing about weird science. Let’s just say that’s true. Well, if you believe that, what would you, what would you want to do?” Vance said.
“The answer is that you’d want to reshore as much American manufacturing as possible and you’d want to produce as much energy as possible in the United States of America because we’re the cleanest economy in the entire world.”
He went on to criticize the Biden administration for spending money on solar panels and other energy production components from China.
While Democrats still hold a sizable polling advantage on climate change, the Republican Party appears to be gaining ground by linking the issue to boosting America’s economy through domestic production and competing against international adversaries.
A poll by Stack Data Strategy in partnership with American Conservation Coalition Action found that 51 percent of respondents trust the Democratic Party to address climate change, while 30 percent trust the Republican Party.
However, the same poll also showed that Republicans are more trusted to handle economic threats from China, which 60 percent of voters said they were concerned about.
Newsweek reached out to the Vance and Trump campaigns via email outside of regular working hours.
