Two governors, one who offered to provide the most popular 2024 fight but threatened to disenfranchise key party factions, and a less well-known candidate with democratic credentials from a reliably blue state, were the choice of Vice President Kamala Harris as her running mate.
In the end, Harris bypassed the choose from a more socially beneficial condition — Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro — for Minnesota’s Tim Walz, opting for a whimsical government whose taunting of Republicans Donald Trump and JD Vance as “weird” became a gathering cry for Liberals.
After President Joe Biden’s election campaign ended, Walz’s selection completes the Democrat party’s campaign’s two-week makeover, focusing on getting the party’s very progressive voters and rank-and-file labor members who no longer support the president’s leadership.
Walz’s work is clear: Bring again Democratic blocs who drifted from Biden, while sharpening the group’s information on the market — a defining issue — to increase the party’s appeal in states including Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
The support that Walz received from independent senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a former centrist Democrat, and liberal firebrand Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York immediately made the party’s base stronger and expand its appeal.
Manchin claimed Walz could “bring normality back to the craziest political environment” that the country has ever seen. Ocasio-Cortez said Harris and Walz would “govern effectively, inclusively, and boldly”, calling his addition to the ticket” an excellent decision” in a post on X.
The choice is in some ways a reflection of how Harris ‘ candidacy has altered a map of the country’s electoral landscape, which Republicans were considering Minnesota for a potential pick just last month.
Walz, 60, demonstrated his plain-spoken approach, which helped him win six terms in the House from a rural, conservative-leaning district and two terms as governor, ahead of his selection.
” These guys are just weird”, Walz said, an insult casting Trump as out-of-the-norm and energizing Democrats who often struggled to find the right counter to the former president. Trump, a former felon who supported laws that attempted to impose US law, dominated the summer as the front-runner against Biden.
Labor-Friendly
Progressives and organized labor leaders, who had pushed for Walz’s selection, welcomed him. On Tuesday, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler praised him as a “labor champion who will stand up for working people.”
Democrats hope Walz’s victories, which he signed as governor, will draw voters ‘ hearts and cause concern among students who are facing high wages and job anxiety, as well as expanded child care and paid family and medical leave. In Harris ‘ effort to combat voter dismay over Biden’s economic management, smartphone issues will be a key component of Democratic messaging.
Trump has made inroads with blue-collar workers, an effort Republicans sought to bolster with Vance’s starkly populist economic approach. Vance’s message is one Walz will be tasked with countering. While Harris can boast endorsements from union leaders, support has been less solid among labor’s rank-and-file who are wary of the Biden administration’s clean energy push.
Ticket Balance
Walz was chosen from a shortlist of primarily White, male elected officials, including Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, who was credited with bringing balance to an alreadystoried political system. Harris wants to be the first Asian-American president and first Black woman in the US.
Before entering politics, Walz served in the Army National Guard and worked as a high-school teacher. He focused primarily on the military, veterans, and agricultural issues in the House, which will help him improve Harris ‘ standing.
He has frequently shown an independent streak, including having been chosen by the National Rifle Association to support gun control legislation and being one of the few Democrats to have once voted to hold then-Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt. Harris would then take over the vetting of its running partners.
Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker, praised Walz on Tuesday. ” Growing up as a child working on the farm, Governor Tim Walz knows the heartland of America”, she said in a statement.
Carrying Walz’s own state offers to be an afterthought for Democrats. In 1972, when Richard Nixon won the state by a landslide, Minnesota last voted Republican for president. Neighboring Wisconsin, though, is a swing state and Walz’s birthplace of Nebraska does not award its five electoral votes on a winner-take-all basis, leaving room for a pick-up.
Shapiro made an offer to deliver the party Pennsylvania, which has the most Electoral College votes among the seven battleground states, but his backing for Israel’s nuclear war against Hamas threatened to stoke a backlash on the Democratic left.
In an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, Vance criticized Harris for excluding Shapiro and blaming “antisemitism in their own caucus.”
GOP Attacks
Lacking a national profile is one obstacle Walz must overcome. An ABC News/Ipsos poll of American adults from July 26-27 found 57 % said they did n’t know what impression they had of Walz, and almost one-third had no opinion of him.
Republicans were delighted with the choice, blaming Walz for being too liberal for voters and bringing back images of civil unrest in his state following the death of George Floyd, which suggests that race and crime will continue to be hot topics in the election.
Walz was accused of limiting the protests in 2020 by Trump at a rally held in Minneapolis in July. Remember me, I could n’t get your governor to act when the violent mobs of anarchists, looters, and Marxists burned down Minneapolis four years ago.
In a bid to define Walz, Trump’s campaign labeled him a “dangerously liberal extremist” in a statement Tuesday and a video assailed him as” a rubber stamp” for Harris ‘ agenda.
Walz, the chair of the Democratic Governors Association, was also criticized by their counterparts — the Republican Governors Association.
His record demonstrates that he consistently supports the most liberal policies supported by the Democratic Party, according to RGA Executive Director Sara Craig.
At a Philadelphia rally on Tuesday night, he’ll take his first test to introduce himself to voters.
Tim Pawlenty, a former Republican governor in Minnesota, claimed Walz could embody Harris ‘ liberal philosophy in a different way.
” He’s like Bernie Sanders in hunting gear”, Pawlenty said.
