ONE vice presidential candidate is a best-selling author who coined the term "childless cat ladies" to disparage Democrats and latched onto a made-up story about immigrants eating pets.
The other is a folksy former high school football coach who has faced questions about his military service and has called his Republican opponents "weird," a label that quickly stuck.
Both come from the Midwest who claim to understand what Americans in the heartland really want but are sharply divided over policy.
When Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz collide in a vice presidential debate next week, both will seek to fill in the basic sketches that the American public has seen of them so far while also making the case for their respective presidential nominees, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
Typically, a VP debate is largely overlooked by voters. But voters might be more interested than usual to see them go head-to-head on Tuesday in their only scheduled debate before the Nov. 5 election.
With no further presidential debates planned, the VP square off also will give both the opportunity to make persuasive closing arguments on behalf of their campaigns - just as early voting ramps up across the country.
Harris was widely viewed as getting the better of Trump in their Sept. 10 debate.
That may put more pressure on Vance, 40, to turn in a strong performance.
Walz, 60, the governor of Minnesota and a longtime member of Congress will broaden her appeal to independents in states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, which has derided Vance as a "weird," out-of-touch Ivy League-educated wonk.
Vance, author of the bestselling memoir "Hillbilly Elegy," likely will have to explain his willingness to play up a fictional story of Haitian immigrants eating household pets in Springfield, Ohio, as well as his hardline stance on abortion.
Walz likely will be pushed on how he, as governor, handled the riots in Minneapolis in 2020 after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police.
One of Vance's goals will be to portray Walz as a leftist masquerading as a moderate.
Vance, who served in the Marine Corps and was a public affairs officer during a six-month stint in Iraq, has accused Walz of leaving the Army National Guard to avoid getting deployed to Iraq and of falsely suggesting he served in combat.
Walz, who served in the Guard for 24 years, retired to run for Congress in 2005.
The Harris campaign has acknowledged he misspoke in a 2018 video in which he referenced "weapons of war that I carried into war." Walz never served in a combat zone.
"It's absolutely fair to ask Walz about how he painted his military background because he has been very careful on how he has answered this," said Ron Bonjean, a Republican strategist in Washington.
But Bonjean said Vance should keep his focus on how "another Trump presidency can help voters with solutions to their kitchen table issues in order to attract independent voters in toss-up states."
Paul Begala, a former top aide to Democratic President Bill Clinton, said it would be a "rookie mistake" for Vance to go hard at Walz because voters choose based on the presidential candidate, not their No. 2.
"Even if Vance were to destroy Walz, it won't make a difference," Begala said.
In contrast to Trump's debate preparations, which largely consisted of unstructured policy chats among key advisers, Vance has opted for a more traditional preparation strategy.
He tapped Tom Emmer, a US representative from Minnesota, to stand in for Walz during mock debates, the source said.
Vance also has been getting peppered with questions in separate sessions with his wife, Usha Vance, and senior Trump aide Jason Miller in attendance, that person said.
Walz, too, has been working with a stand-in, US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a small-town Midwesterner like Vance.
Other key players in Walz's prep include Rob Friedlander and Zayn Siddique, both worked in the Biden administration's White House.
Siddique helped prepare Harris for her debate against Trump.
A Pew Research Center poll this month showed 34 per cent of Americans view Vance favourably, while 42 per cent, unfavourably.
Walz was viewed favourably by 39 per cent of Americans while 33 per cent had an unfavourable opinion.
* The writers are from Reuters