What You Need to Know About Kamala Harris’s Choice for VP
Vice President Kamala Harris freshly introduced her chosen running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. She did this at a rally in Philadelphia, in front of quite an energetic crowd of 10,000 people, all welcoming the new 2024 Democratic ticket.
Kamala Harris gave a warm welcome to the former high school teacher and football coach, and did a quick run through his resume as a former congressman, military veteran, and current governor, stating that “in 91 days, the nation will know Coach Walz by another name, and that is vice president of the United States.”
The rally took place at Temple University’s Liacouras Center, and it served as the official kickoff for the combined campaign after Harris notified Walz on Tuesday morning that he would be the one. After the rally, the pair is expected to embark on a whirlwind tour to a bunch of states in the upper Midwest, where the election might as well be decided, including Wisconsin and Michigan, then on to the Southwest states of Arizona and Nevada.
The two Midwestern states are essential, especially since former President Donald Trump won those two back in 2016, but ultimately lost them to President Joe Biden in 2020. Harris hopes to energize Latino voters at stops in Phoenix and Las Vegas. Here’s what you need to know about their official campaign debut:
Why Walz?
Some reports say that Harris felt very comfortable with Walz, especially after looking over his record of legislative achievements in Minnesota and seeing them as 100% compatible with her agenda of family-friendly policies.
Walz is also seen as palatable to a wide majority of rural voters in the Midwest, which is a key constituency for the Democrats to hold onto the “blue wall” of states that might be needed to secure 270 electoral votes.
This pick could help Harris compete in rural areas, especially where Walz has a wide record of attracting votes. But Walz is from the Democratic Party’s progressive wing, so it might make it easier for the Trump campaign to attack this duo and tag it as being too far left.
We don’t think vice presidential candidates truly impact the outcome of our elections, even if they might affect the margins. At their first joint appearance, Walz seemed quite comfortable in the role of Number 2, and by that, we mean being super ready to step into the spotlight before a curious national audience without really overshadowing his patron.
He also consistently praised Harris’ record as a prosecutor and a lawmaker.
Walz ticks plenty of boxes as a Liberal Democrat and Military Veteran
Walz is a two-term governor of Minnesota, a veteran, and a six-term congressman. He is also a retired teacher who coached his school’s football team. Even if he’s not that well-known outside his state, Minnesota has had quite some success under his stewardship, especially because he managed to pass key legislation like universal school meals, legalized marijuana, abortion protections, and plenty of gun control measures.
His record has also endeared him to progressives in the Democratic Party, but he also has had quite some success appealing to rural voters who Harris and the Democrats might need to make inroads into a demographic that has voted Republican in the most recent elections.
He also joined the Army National Guard and attended college on the GI Bill. He’s also a gun owner and seemed quite ready to make the case that the right to bear arms and a series of reasonable restrictions on guns aren’t mutually exclusive concepts.
“In Minnesota, we truly believe in the Second Amendment. However, we also believe in common-sense gun violence laws,” he stated.
The Minnesota Governor has already shown he is an effective attack dog
At first, Walz was a dark horse for selection as Harris’ running mate, but he managed to score valuable points attacking Trump and his MAGA supporters as “odd”, a label that seemed to get under the former president’s skin.
He also gave a glimpse of the role he might play in Philadelphia. And since we mentioned Trump, Walz declared that “he froze in the face of the COVID crisis. He drove our economy into the ground.”
He also delivered a candid account of his own family’s experience with different infertility treatments, which is a stark contrast to attempts by some people on the far right to restrict such procedures.
Walz will delve right into a more successful debut as a vice presidential candidate than the one of JD Vance, the Ohio senator Trump picked. Vance has come under deep criticism for his comments on women, particularly after labeling some who are not married as “childless cat ladies.”
Vance also had to defend Trump’s repeated attacks on immigrants while he was married to a Hindu woman who is the child of Indian immigrants. “Just like many other people, I grew up with in the heartland, JD studied at Yale, then had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires and wrote a bestseller trashing that community.
That’s not what middle America is, and I need to tell you, can’t wait to debate the guy.” Walz said. The Trump campaign didn’t waste any time in trying to brand Walz as a liberal with positions outside the mainstream of American politics.
Walz spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State. And just as Kamala, Tim Walz is a dangerously liberal extremist, and the Harris-Walz California dream is the true American nightmare.”
Pennsylvania is still the key, even without Josh Shapiro on the ticket.
However, it is Harris who’s the true standard-bearer for this party, and it’s still not clear what the choice of a running mate could actually mean to a campaign. Shapiro is an apparent runner-up, and he was eyed for being able to deliver the Keystone State’s 19 Electoral College votes, without which it would become very difficult for Harris to win the White House.
However, Shapiro is expected to be a key supporter of the ticket on the campaign trail and also served as the opening act of the Philadelphia rally. Harris is quite “courtroom tough”, according to Shapiro. “She has a big heart and she’s quite battle-tested and ready to go.”
Back in 2020, Biden won Pennsylvania and spent a lot of time there campaigning, even before his withdrawal from the contest in late July. However, Trump won the state in 2016, and also held rallies over there, including a particular one in Butler where a young man tried to kill him in the middle of July. As Harris told the crowd, “We are the underdogs, but we have the momentum.”
Walz comes from rural America
It would be quite hard to find a more vivid representative of our heartland than Walz. As he was born in West Point, Nebraska, a community of around 3,500 people northwest of Omaha, Walz joined the Army National Guard and became a teacher in Nebraska. He and his wife moved to Mankato in southern Minnesota in the 1990s.
That’s where he learned social studies and coached football at Mankato West High School, including for the 1999 team that won the school’s first state championship. Up to this day, he points to his union membership there.
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