Republican vice presidential candidate Senator JD Vance pauses during an event at the Kenosha City Courthouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, August 20, 2024.

In the final months of a crowded Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat in Ohio, JD Vance found himself in the middle of the field.

The pollster for a supporting super PAC warned that Vance’s campaign was in a “steep decline,” arguing that he had failed to convince Republican voters of his conservative beliefs and loyalty to Donald Trump.

“Vance needs a course correction as soon as possible,” the pollster wrote in a February 2022 memo.

It arrived a month later. When the five most important primary candidates met on stage for the umpteenth time, the two supposed leading candidates almost came to blows. As they stood nose to nose, one prepared to fight while the other uttered a sexist slur. Vance, sitting at the edge of the stage, pounced.

“Think about what you just saw. This guy wants to be a U.S. senator and says, “Hold me back.” “Hold me back,” Vance said to loud applause. “What a joke. Answer the question. Stop messing around.”

It was a breakthrough for Vance that led to a second look from GOP voters in his state and from Trump. Snippets of the exchange and other moments from the debate impressed Trump, sources told CNN, and played a role in Vance securing a race-defining endorsement from the former president.

On Tuesday, that ability will be put to the test again. Vance, now the Republican nominee for vice president, will meet for the first time with his Democratic counterpart, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, on a debate stage in New York.

At just 40 years old and two years into his political career, Vance is still a largely unproven commodity. It is also unknown whether he will be able to assert himself for the Democrats and at the same time increase his popularity among voters – or at least not jeopardize it further.

Read more about Vance’s story.