Vance and Walz agree to a vice presidential debate on Oct. 1 hosted by CBS News

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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance have agreed to debate each other on Oct. 1, setting up a matchup of potential vice presidents as early voting in some states gets underway for the general election.

And Vice President Kamala Harris has forecast the scheduling of a second debate between Donald Trump and herself, although that matchup appeared to be contingent on the GOP nominee participating in an already scheduled Sept. 10 debate with Harris.

CBS News on Wednesday posted on its X feed that the network had invited both Vance and Walz to debate in New York City, presenting four possible dates — Sept. 17, Sept. 24, Oct. 1 and Oct. 8 — as options.

Walz reposted that message from his own campaign account, “See you on October 1, JD.” The Harris-Walz campaign followed up with a message of its own, saying Walz “looks forward to debating JD Vance — if he shows up.”

Vance posted on X that he would accept the Oct. 1 invitation. He also challenged Walz to meet on Sept. 18.

Officials with the Harris-Walz campaign did not immediately return a message seeking comment on Vance’s acceptance of the earlier debate that he said would be on CNN or whether Walz would participate in that one as well.

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Representatives for CNN confirmed that Vance had accepted the network’s debate invitation.

“CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan of “Face the Nation” will moderate the Oct. 1 debate, according to the network.

Whether or not Walz and Vance would debate before the Nov. 5 general election had been in question. In just the past several weeks, President Joe Biden left the campaign and Democrats selected Harris to lead their ticket.

Vance has largely kept his focus trained on Harris, whom he would have been set to debate before Biden’s departure from the race. Vance has lobbed critiques against Walz, including questioning the retired Army National Guardsman’s service record.

Trump has said he wanted Vance to debate Walz on CBS, which had been discussing potential dates for that meeting.

The debate is expected weeks after the Sept. 10 top-of-the-ticket debate recently solidified between Trump and Harris on ABC News.

Trump has said he negotiated several other debate dates, on three different networks. Fox News has also proposed a debate between Harris and Trump to take place on Sept. 4, and NBC News is angling to air one on Sept. 25.

During an appearance in Michigan, Harris said she was “happy to have that conversation” about an additional debate.

On Thursday, Harris’ campaign said Trump had “accepted our proposal for three debates,” meaning one between the vice presidential running mates, in addition to two presidential debates. Provided that Trump follows through on participating in the Sept. 10 CBS debate, Harris-Walz spokesperson Michael Tyler said that “the American people will have another opportunity” to see the vice president and Donald Trump on the debate stage in October,” without mentioning a specific date or network.

Neither campaign immediately responded to a message seeking comment on whether a date or network had been agreed to for a second presidential debate.

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP ___

AP Media writer David Bauder in New York contributed to this report.