Who Will Play Tim Walz and J.D. Vance on Saturday Night Live?

After a series of chemistry reads with potential VP candidates, Kamala Harris has officially selected Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota as her running mate in the 2024 presidential election. They will go head-to-head with Donald Trump and his vice presidential pick, JD Vance, a pair that Walz has referred to as simply “weird.” Any oddities about both presidential tickets will be excavated in the upcoming season of Saturday Night Live, which returns for its 50th season on September 28.

SNL cast member James Austin Johnson is expected to return as Trump, an impression he was largely hired to perform back in 2021. Maya Rudolph, who played Harris throughout the 2020 primaries and election, has shifted her schedule to reprise her role on SNL during the 2024 campaign. But who could be on the casting—erm, couch—when it comes to Vance, whose lack of “aura” will make for ripe comedy on SNL? And how about Woaz, whose “sweaty and really passionate” spirit already earned a comparison to Chris Farley’s iconic character Matt Foley in a recent Washington Post piece?

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Ahead, a look at some of the early frontrunners to play Walz and Vance when Saturday Night Live premieres its historic new season this fall.

Tim Walz

Steve Martin

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So far, Martin seems to have won the popular vote to play Walz—largely due to their bespectacled physical similarities and the actor’s upcoming press tour for Only Murders in the Building season 4, which would lend itself to some SNL 50th anniversary cross-promotion. But it would be wise to remember that at 78, Martin is closer in age to Trump and Biden than the relatively spry Walz, who—as one Puck News reporter pointed out—is actually younger than Brad Pitt (only by about eight months, but still). Then again, the once non-political Martin hasn’t been shy about sharing his distaste for Trump, meaning he might relish the opportunity to play a guy battling the former president.

Al Franken

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Although the SNL-star-to-senator-to-impersonating-a-governor-on-SNL pipeline may not be the most illustrious path, it’s hard to deny Franken’s fitness for the role. He is not only a comedian with longtime ties to the series, but a former politician and Minnesota native—who has been dipping his toes back into stand-up this year. Franken even celebrated the selection of Walz as democratic VP candidate on social media, writing alongside a photo of him with Walz, “A great choice with an impressive record in Minnesota: making reproductive freedom a right, expanding paid family and medical leave, making school meals for students free. Veteran, teacher, football coach, Congressman, Governor. And he’s not weird!”

Jim Gaffigan

The beloved stand-up comic, who has gotten more publicly political in recent years, has also been floated as an SNL possibility on social media. As an Illinois native, Gaffigan often makes fun of Midwestern-isms. An appearance on the long-running sketch series, which he has strangely never hosted, feels long overdue. Then again, a packed touring schedule might prevent Gaffigan from making regular stops by the show.

Jim O’Heir

Speaking of affable Jims from the Midwest: the fellow Illinoisan best known for bringing to life the bumbling Gerry on seven seasons of Parks and Recreation has also proven to be a popular online suggestion. O’Heir’s folksy energy feels in sync with that of Walz, who served as both a football coach and the faculty advisor for the school’s first gay-straight alliance club during his career as a high school teacher.

J.D. Vance

Shane Gillis

While some have noted a physical likeness between Vance and former SNL cast member Taran Killam, Killam’s comments about Trump’s “embarrassing and shameful” 2015 hosting stint may make him unlikely to return to Studio 8H. The same can’t be said for Gillis, who five years after he was hired by the series in 2019—then fired a week later for making past anti-Asian and homophobic jokes—was invited to host SNL in a February episode that also featured a cameo from conservative politician Nikki Haley. Gillis’s reputation for appealing to the right, while not divulging any of his own political leanings, could make him a fitting choice to parody the former Trump critic turned ally.

Haley Joel Osment

Even after breaking out as the child star of The Sixth Sense and A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Osment never hosted—or even appeared on—SNL. But he could make a splashy debut as Trump’s running mate, namely due to an apparent resemblance between the two men. Osment, who later this month stars in Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut Blink Twice, has embraced more comic projects in recent years, appearing in episodes of TV comedies like What We Do in the Shadows, The Kominsky Method, and Future Man.

Zach Galifianakis

Galifianakis, who bears some resemblance to Vance, earned his first Emmy nomination for hosting SNL in 2011. He hasn’t been back to emcee since 2013. But with a part in the upcoming fourth season of Only Murders, he could be poised to dust off the cringe comedy skills he expertly honed on his former talk series, Between Two Ferns, which welcomed both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as guests during its run.

Kate McKinnon

McKinnon is not a conventional choice to portray Vance, but she’s the one that could most easily get under his skin. In the grand SNL tradition of female performers performing conservative male politicians—see: Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer or Aidy Bryant as Ted Cruz—it would be rather delicious to see McKinnon, a self-avowed cat-lover, skewer the man who once railed against “childless cat ladies.” Plus, she’s had perhaps more experience than any other cast member at mimicking figures across the political spectrum—from Hillary Clinton and Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Jeff Sessions and Rudy Giuliani.