WASHINGTON — With Election Day fewer than five weeks away, the days are dwindling for Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump to win over voters.

Their running mates, Gov. Tim Walz, D-Minn., and Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, took part in a high-stakes debate Oct. 1, hosted by CBS News.

Rep. Morgan McGarvey, D-Louisville, watched it from the battleground state of Georgia, along with supporters of Harris and Walz.

He said Walz was “relatable, likable, somebody who might have made a few mistakes in his life, but is willing to give grace and keep moving forward to build the coalition to make America as strong as it can possibly be.”

Near the end of the debate, Walz asked Vance if Trump lost the 2020 election.

After Vance said he was “focused on the future,” Walz said it was a “damning non-answer.”

McGarvey called Vance's comments “stunning.”  

“It shows how extreme he is,” McGarvey said. “It shows how far he is willing to go to achieve power, how he is not going to at all be guard rails for Donald Trump, but just do whatever he says.”

“I think if that's the only thing the Democrats have to hang their hat on, they're losing,” said Majority Floor Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, McGarvey's former state senate colleague across the aisle. 

Vance wasn’t Thayer's first pick for Trump’s running mate, he said, but the Ohio senator exceeded his expectations.

“I thought it was one of the best debate performances by a Republican presidential or vice-presidential candidate that we've seen in a long time,” Thayer said. “On the flip side, I thought that Gov. Tim Walz did very poorly.”

The two vice presidential candidates were back out on the campaign trail Wednesday, both hitting swing states, with Walz in Pennsylvania and Vance in Michigan.