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Vice pres­id­en­tial de­bates don’t de­cide elec­tions. But Mike Pence’s com­mand­ing per­form­ance against Tim Kaine offered a tan­tal­iz­ing pre­view of where Re­pub­lic­ans would be if they had nom­in­ated a more tra­di­tion­al pres­id­en­tial nom­in­ee.

On is­sue after is­sue, Pence put Kaine on the de­fens­ive, for­cing him to de­fend Hil­lary Clin­ton’s po­s­i­tions on the Rus­sia re­set, her email serv­er’s se­cur­ity, Pres­id­ent Obama’s health care law, and the ad­min­is­tra­tion’s cur­rent policy in Syr­ia.

Donald Trump’s weeklong slide in the presidential race started when he showed up to the first debate unprepared and spoiling for a fight. On Tuesday evening, Mike Pence helped slow it by doing the opposite.

Calm and measured, Pence showed off his preparation for his vice-presidential showdown with Democrat Tim Kaine, fending off a slashing, interrupting opponent.

Vice-Presidential Debate: What to Watch For

The debate on Tuesday night between Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia and Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana may not rival the drama of last week’s face-off between the candidates at the top of the ticket, but it could matter more than other vice-presidential contests. The debate comes at a critical point in the presidential race, with Donald J. Trump reeling from a disastrous week and Hillary Clinton reaching for a clear upper hand in the campaign’s final weeks.

For politics fans, it’s easy to get caught up in fun Electoral College scenarios — ones in which small states make a big difference or in which the House of Representatives has to decide the election. The alternative — endlessly repeating that “Florida is important; Ohio is important” — can get tiresome. That said, Ohio is important, and Florida is super important.

Like his third-party forefathers, Gary Johnson gets irate when you call him a spoiler. “We’re giving people a chance to vote for something, as opposed to the lesser of two evils,” the Libertarian presidential nominee shouted last week at a Bloomberg Politics reporter who asked about his invisible path to victory.

Hillary Clinton emerges from the first presidential debate with a five-point lead over Donald Trump in the race for the presidency, having narrowed the enthusiasm gap between her supporters and Trump’s, and holding broad advantages over the Republican nominee as the candidate with the right temperament and preparation for the job, according to a new CNN/ORC poll.

Trump’s risky early-voting strategy

Just a few weeks into early voting, it’s too soon to know which presidential campaign is winning the war for ballots cast in advance of Election Day. But one thing is obvious: For better or for worse, in the critical phase of the campaign where roughly a third of the vote was cast in 2012, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are following the same playbooks that got them this far.