TYLER, Texas — Tonight is the first and only debate between Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris.
"Traditionally, the vice presidential debate was of lesser importance and the campaigns have often used the vice presidential debate as a way to kind of more aggressively attack each other," LeTourneau University associate professor John Barrett said. "This year, it may be a little different given the the previous debate we had was already pretty aggressive."
Barrett says both parties will be under pressure due to what happened in the presidential debate.
"I think both the candidates are going to make an effort to have a substantive exchange after the criticisms from the first presidential debate," Barrett said. "So I think we're going to see a somewhat subdued performance by both of them, I think, Pence is going to be in an awkward position to where he's going to be speaking largely as trump's surrogate and so there's going to be a lot of questions about the Trump administration and when you're the vice president, you can't draw any distinctions between your own views and the president's views."
Barrett says he believes Joe Biden's running mate, Sen. Harris, will have a little more wiggle room when it comes to being in the hot seat.
"She's got a little bit more maneuvering room, because she can say, well as a candidate here is, you know, what I proposed and now that I'm teamed up with Vice President Biden, you know, obviously, he's the nominee and so we're going to do things his way," Barrett said. "I think she'll have a little bit more maneuvering room, a little bit more, a little bit more maneuvering room to be aggressive."
Mark Owens, associate professor of political science at UT Tyler, say, he thinks tonight's debate will give voters a chance to know the both candidates better.
"You have Vice President Mike Pence, who has been our Vice President for the last four years, but still isn't in the spotlight as much as President Trump is and so a lot of voters still want to know, you know, how does he act?" said Owens. "What's his opportunity, you know, is he also still really following and working with the President? For Kamala Harris, is a senator from California, right? This is the opportunity for the rest of the world to know who she is."
Preparations for these types of debates are intense and can last nearly a week.
"They will take sometimes three to five days of preparation to be with other individuals, right to have someone work on what is it like to be interrupted and how do you continue to keep your composure," Owens said.
The debate will be separated into nine segments. The topics have not been released, however experts say the coronavirus pandemic should be high on the list of questions.
"Well, the first topic is very obviously going to be the covid outbreak, with the president's illness and some of the criticisms about his response to that and the actions in the wake of that," Barrett said.
Tonight's debate will start at 8 p.m. and is being held in Salt Lake City, Utah. Crews have installed plexiglass shields to separate the candidates and guests attending the debate will be asked to wear masks.