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On Tuesday night, Gov. Tim Walz and Sen. JD Vance faced off in what is expected to be the final debate of the campaign.

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Make no mistake about it, JD Vance crushed Tim Walz in this debate. It wasn’t even close.

Gov. Walz was grossly outmatched. Even with both moderators helping him out, it wasn’t enough for him to compete with Sen. JD Vance. Vance was calm, cool, and sharp. He had good answers for the questions, knew his facts, and repeatedly hit on the right points, including the fact that Kamala Harris is the sitting vice president who claims to have all these great ideas to fix the problems in this country but, for whatever reason, isn’t.

It was really something to watch Vance dominate on issue after issue, schooling not just Walz but the moderators as well. And he did it eloquently and easily like it was second nature. He even took issues that are generally strong ones for Democrats and addressed them in ways that will resonate with voters.

And his closing statement was spot on.

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And I have to tell you, I thought Tim Walz was going to do a lot better. For sure, the Harris campaign was definitely trying to lower expectations before the debate. Last week CNN reported that Walz was a bit worried about the showdown. “Tim Walz is telling people he’s just as nervous about facing JD Vance as he was the Sunday afternoon in August when he warned Kamala Harris in his running mate interview that he was a bad debater,” CNN claimed. “Maybe more nervous, according to multiple people who’ve spoken to him.”

There were even reports on Tuesday morning claiming that Democrats were worried that Walz would blow the debate. In hindsight, they were right to be concerned.

“Democratic insiders are said to be privately voicing concerns that Tim Walz could blow crucial vice presidential debate against JD Vance because of his tendency to be overly abrupt and defensive about his record in office and his occasionally ‘manic’ speaking style,” The Independent reported. 

The report continued: “Others pointed to the former high school teacher’s inexperience on the national debate stage, while another voiced fears that Harris’s own impressive performance against Trump in last month’s presidential debate has set such a high bar.”

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Honestly, I thought this was just the usual lowering expectations, but boy was it true. Walz was clearly nervous and rattled at times, and made some pretty embarrassing gaffes. Like this one:

The memes are already going strong on social media.

I knew JD Vance would do well tonight, but I honestly underestimated him. Normally, I don’t expect vice presidential debates to matter, but I think this one might. I think JD Vance really connected with average Americans tonight, and Kamala Harris can’t be happy with her running mate right now.