Who Will Win the VP Debate?

Are you ready for another 2024 election debate? Donald Trump isn’t; he posted in all-caps on Truth Social that there will be no second debate between himself and Kamala Harris.

But there is one more debate scheduled between the vice-presidential candidates. On October 1, Tim Walz (Democratic Party) and J.D. Vance (Republican Party) will do battle on CBS, with Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan as the moderators.

So who will win this debate? Walz, probably. BetOnline has the Minnesota governor as the -220 favorite on their politics odds board, up from -200 as I was writing this; Vance, the junior senator from Ohio, has dipped from +150 to +155. VP debate odds from Bovada and Bookmaker (visit our Bookmaker Review) are pending as we go to press.

Harris was available at -270 shortly before her debate versus Trump on September 10, so the expectations for Vance and the Republican Party aren’t quite as low this time around. Does Vance have a real shot at defeating Walz? As they say, anything can happen when you bet on politics.

Who Decides the Winner?

According to the rules for this wager at BetOnline, the winner must be decided by a CBS-affiliated poll; should one not be provided, BetOnline will turn to YouGov and/or Ipsos for an answer.

This is fairly standard operating procedure at the online politics betting sites. It was much the same for the Harris-Trump debate on ABC; most books wanted either ABC themselves or their FiveThirtyEight affiliate to declare the winner – which they eventually did after a few days.

What Are the Rules?

As for the VP debate itself, which will be held in New York City (exact start time TBA), we’re still waiting for more details about the rules and format Walz and Vance will be working with. All we can say at the moment is that Walz has not accepted the additional September 18 debate on CNN that Vance proposed.

Does Vance Have a Chance?

It will depend in part on the format they choose. Vance normally prefers to speak directly to voters, off-the-cuff, so if he’s put in a situation similar to the one Trump found himself in on ABC, with moderators who are willing to push back, it’s advantage Walz.

Speaking of whom, the Minnesota governor has years of executive experience to fall back on. He and Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen had a series of three lively debates in 2022; no official winner was declared, but Walz held his ground against Jensen’s “Minnesota is broken” attacks and won the state.

Will There Be Another Debate?

Maybe. At press time, Bovada (visit our Bovada Review) has odds of +295 that Harris and Trump will debate a total of two times, +1200 for exactly three debates, and +4500 for four or more. Odds for a second VP debate are off the board.

What About a Musk-Cuban Debate?

But there’s more where that came from. On Monday, investor and Dallas Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban extended an invitation to fellow billionaire Elon Musk to engage in a “direct discussion” about Kamala Harris and her tax policies. This was after Musk shared a post on his X platform (formerly Twitter) that was critical of Cuban, who advocates for higher taxes on American’s top earners.

Back in January, Cuban challenged Musk and any other bigwig CEO who wanted to touch verbal gloves over DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) hires. They’ve traded jabs online like this multiple times, but will this blossom into a full-grown TV debate?

Probably not – but if it does, Cuban is expected to win in a cakewalk. BetOnline (visit our BetOnline Review) has Cuban as the -800 favorite in this hypothetical matchup, well ahead of Musk at +425; however, “No” is priced at -2500 for whether they’ll debate on television by the end of 2024. “Yes” is a distant +800.

While we wait for these titans of industry to throw down, Walz and Vance are preparing for what might be the last significant battle of the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Keep it locked in with us at Bookmakers Review for more politics odds and analysis as the countdown to November 5 continues.

*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.