Do you remember any excitement surrounding Hillary Clinton’s vice-presidential pick, Tim Kaine? Any buzz encompassing Mike Pence as a vice presidential candidate in 2016? What about earlier than that — anything interesting you recall about Joe Biden before he ran for president or even Paul Ryan?

Contrasting that with the personification of Tim Walz and JD Vance this year, it feels as though there is a definitive difference between the vice presidential candidates of the past and the ones of this election.

Vice presidential candidates have always been on the back burner, regarded by many as inconsequential. Even their electoral power was perceived as a “myth,” according to Politico in an article from 2016.

This year, however, a simple Google Trends search shows that Vance and Walz have skyrocketed past every single one of the previous vice presidential candidates in online internet searches — at least since 2004.

Despite former President Trump elucidating that a vice presidential pick has “virtually no impact” on the election that follows, it appears that this year that claim is being challenged, and it’s critical to look at the reasons why.

A critically important poll was conducted by the U.S. News and World Report, and it offers a helpful nugget of information on the subject. The title of the poll’s article notes that half of its respondents, aged 18-34, said the vice presidential picks of the candidates don’t change who they would vote for. 

What U.S. News and World Report doesn’t make the focal point of the article is that a significant 39% of the respondents said they are somewhat or much more likely to vote for Kamala Harris because of her pick of Tim Walz, and 30% of them also said they are somewhat or much less likely to vote for Donald Trump because of his pick of JD Vance.

The fact that half of the respondents said the vice presidential pick wouldn’t matter isn’t that significant, because there are no past polls to compare whether voters felt the same in previous elections. However, with internet searches for the two candidates being higher than ever, it can be reasonably inferred that the number of respondents downplaying the importance of the vice presidential pick might actually be on the lower end compared to the past.

Sure, political campaigns have obviously always encompassed the candidate they are putting forth, remaining steadfast in their attempts to purport policy. But the actual personification of political candidates is something that has only in recent years taken storm, aided by the rise of social media.

A quick search about Walz and Vance on a platform such as TikTok will really tell the story. From a post on Walz’s personal account where he introduces himself as “Coach Walz,” to a series of videos showing an objectively awkward encounter between Vance and the employees of a donut shop, voters could easily form their own impressions of the two vice presidential candidates’ personas if they wanted to.

The icing on the cake? There’s a reason Harris’ campaign has dubbed Trump and Vance as “weird” and used the term in many of their speeches and content. There’s a reason why they play so heavily into Walz’s history as a football coach, “down-to-earth attitude and Midwestern dad” vibes. 

Harris’ campaign has caught onto this phenomenon, this uptick in the personification of political candidates that now has spread to the unmarked territory of the vice presidential candidates.

The only way we’ll know if it paid off is to wait until the election. But all evidence points to the fact that the voters are absorbing it.

George is a senior in LAS.

[email protected]