IOWA, USA — The world is still buzzing from the impact of last night's Tuesday night's presidential debate.
Local 5 took a look at how each candidate's performance could sway the decision of the crucial undecided voters, who hold the key to this election.
It was the first time the candidates met face-to-face, as they aimed to have the American people get to know them too.
Though David Omen, a chief of staff to two of Iowa's former governors, said how the debate's impact on undecided voters in Iowa has yet to be seen.
"I have to think that some undecided voters, and there are not a lot of them in this state, probably saw Vice President Harris overperform a little bit, and perhaps former President Trump underperform, underperformed the race that looked to be pretty, pretty much with a Trump lead in Iowa may be a little closer today," Omen said.
University of Iowa political professor Tim Hagle said the way Trump and Harris handled themselves on stage said a lot.
"Even though she's been the vice president for the last three and a half years, we don't really have a solid understanding of what her positions are, particularly given that we've heard a few things from her campaign suggesting that she's changed positions from those that she espoused back in 2019 when she was running for president," Hagle said. "So we didn't get a lot of specifics along those lines. Trump managed to get a number of his points in although he did tend to ramble a little bit. So for him, it was a little bit more like sort of his rally mode rather than a debate mode."
According to a poll from FiveThirtyEight, 57% of debate watchers nationally said Harris turned in the better performance; only 34% said Trump did. For undecided voters, Hagle believes these performances may not be enough to lean one way or another.
"Some of these folks basically don't like any of the candidates. They think it's all kind of a scam or something of that nature, or it doesn't make much of a difference, and so they'll have a tendency to just say, 'I'm not going to bother.' And that's why the campaigns have to work particularly hard to turn out those folks," Hagle said.
Omen believes the debate will be one tool undecided voters use to make their choice, but not the only one.
"In truth, many vote on style, and they vote on who they like, the intensity over which they like these candidates. It isn't always about a 10-point plan to fix anything," he said. "Obviously, ads matter, stumping in person, some candidate coming to the state, we haven't seen that the general yet. All of that matters, and press coverage matters as well."
Also happening Tuesday night, Taylor Swift officially announced her endorsement of Kamala Harris but, Hagle noted, the move likely won't move the needle. He hopes voters take political advice from experts or do independent research rather than listen to an entertainer.