What we can expect from Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in tonight’s debate

Tuesday night will be the first face-to-face meeting between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, who took over the Democratic ticket in July.

It could also be the last. So tonight, both candidates need to define the contest on their terms.

With tonight’s debate possibly being the only time the two candidates will be onstage together making their respective cases, the pressure is on both Harris and Trump to set the tone of the contest for the 53 days between now and Election Day. For Harris, that means keeping alive a surge of momentum which has overtaken her party since Joe Biden stepped aside. For Trump, it means blunting that momentum and making up lost ground — while redefining his own image for a general election audience which even he now admits turned away in 2020.

The two candidates will probably pursue similar strategies to achieve these goals.

Behind one lectern will be Harris, the incumbent vice president and sudden standard-bearer for not just the Democratic Party but almost four years of a Biden-Harris administration. That means essentially defending her and Biden’s records as a president seeking re-election might do, while also fielding the inevitable attacks from Trump surrounding her rise: the digs at her becoming the Democratic nominee without winning a single primary, the shots aimed at the traditionally do-nothing role of the vice presidency.

But she has an advantage here, given that voters supported the Biden-Harris ticket over Trump in 2020 — she’s seen as the natural successor to the president, blunting the effectiveness of those attacks. Her real challenge tonight will be centered around her opponent, and finishing the job her campaign has been doing for weeks: tying him to his running mate, JD Vance,