JD Vance’s debate performance was ‘hated by hardcore MAGA social media,’ ex-Republican strategist says

A Republican strategist believes Trump’s running mate used the debate as a ‘personal rehabilitation campaign aimed at 2028’

JD Vance’s debate performance was “hated by hardcore MAGA social media,” according to a top former Republican strategist.

Former GOP operative and author Stuart Stevens said that Donald Trump’s running mate was on a “personal rehabilitation campaign aimed at 2028” in the debate against Tim Walz on Tuesday night – something he claims did not go down well with the MAGA movement.

“Dive into hard core MAGA social media. A lot of them hated Vance’s debate. They wanted Vance to expose Harris as the devil,” Stevens said in a post on X.

“Instead he was on a personal rehabilitation campaign aimed at 2028.”

Referring to the New York Times conservative commentator Ross Douthat, Stevens added: “He wanted to become the Great White Hope of the @DouthatNYT crowd and the wealthy donors who know which fork to pick up. Looking at Vance’s history, it should shock no one he put his own ambitions first.”

Douthat said he rated Vance on Tuesday night as “the most successful Republican debate performance of this century, eclipsing Romney in the first debate with Obama in 2012.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by other GOP operatives, with one describing Vance as “a future commander in chief on the debate stage.”

“This is exactly what he needed to do for his own political future,” one Senate GOP aide told The Hill. “He’ll certainly be happy with the short-term implications to the extent those matter, but the long-term implications are real.”

The MAGA movement on social media was not impressed with Vance’s debate performance, according to a former Republican strategist (Getty Images)

Snap polls found the debate was close but the Ohio senator narrowly edged it.

Some GOP operatives said that the Tuesday night showdown has taken Vance’s image from “weird as hell” to being a potential front-runner for the top of the 2028 Republican ticket.

His performance could shift the dial when it comes to impressing key Republican donors, The Hill reported.

“It redefined him to the money guys,” a GOP operative told the outlet. “He came across as a serious guy who won a VP debate, and some of the money guys who rolled their eyes at him now think, ‘Hey this guy has some game.’”

But, despite the positive outlook, Vance did suffer some major slip-ups, including refusing to say who won the 2020 presidential election when pressed by the Minnesota governor.

“Isn’t there something grotesquely sad about the idea that the most successful Republican debate would be by someone who can’t say out loud who won the last presidential race?” Stevens added.

“And refused to answer a question about fulfilling his constitutional duty to certify an election.”

The Republican VP candidate also stumbled when it came to abortion – spouting misleading claims and conceding his party needs to do more to earn Americans’ trust on the issue – and referred to the climate crisis as “weird science.”