After a rapid-fire process to vet potential vice presidential candidates, Kamala Harris has selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to join her on the 2024 Democratic ticket.
“I am proud to announce that I’ve asked Tim Walz to be my running mate,” Harris wrote on Tuesday. “As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he’s delivered for working families like his. It’s great to have him on the team.”
CNN was the first to report the news Tuesday morning, which came shortly after reports emerged that Harris had made a decision and would be announcing her pick within hours. Walz will join Harris at a rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday night.
Vice President Harris was slingshotted to the top of the ticket last month after President Joe Biden announced that he would be suspending his reelection bid. With the Democratic National Convention approaching, the monthslong process typically involved in vetting vice presidential candidates was condensed into a matter of weeks.
From the start, Harris’ vice presidential search appeared to favor white, middle-of-the-road Democratic men, as the party seeks to shore up support among moderate and independent voters.
Walz has been on a media blitz since Biden dropped from the race, demonstrating to the campaign that he’s as comfortable dressing down Republicans on the nightly news as he is speaking to voters in dad-fit and a baseball cap. As governor of Minnesota, Walz has signed legislation codifying reproductive rights, paid family leave, free school meals, and the legalization of marijuana in Minnesota — and he’s done it all with a narrow legislative majority.
Harris touted Walz’s record in a post announcing her pick. “He made Minnesota the first state in the country to pass a law providing constitutional abortion protections after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade,” the Democratic nominee wrote, adding that “as an avid hunter, he passed a bill requiring universal background checks for gun purchases.”
Walz may be a little less well-known than some of the other VP hopefuls, but if the past few weeks are anything to go by, he’ll have no problem making an impression.
By picking Walz, Harris hopes to keep up the momentum in a campaign that is off to a light-speed start. In July alone, the Harris campaign reported raising $310 million — bringing her total cash on hand to a whopping $377 million.
Trump, by contrast, has been struggling to find his footing in the aftermath of Biden’s exit from the race. His own VP pick — Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) — has been a disaster for the campaign. According to an ABC News/IPSOS poll released earlier this week, Vance’s favorability rating is underwater by a staggering 15 points.
While Harris is hosting sold-out rallies featuring Megan Thee Stallion and Quavo, Vance is struggling to explain away a series of comments in which he made clear he holds a deep disdain for childless Americans and women, combating false memes that suggest he enjoys sex with furniture, and failing to shake the label of being “weird.”
The Trump campaign quickly pounced on the news that Harris chose Walz on Tuesday, writing that he will “unleash HELL ON EARTH.”
Trump himself has had a series of public meltdowns in his attempts to cut through Harris’ early dominance. Last week, the former president participated in a panel at the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention in Chicago and launched a racist broadside against Harris, questioning her racial identity.
“She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now, she wants to be known as Black,” Trump said. “So I don’t know, is she Indian or is she Black?”
Harris responded to the comments later that afternoon at an event in Houston. “This afternoon, Donald Trump spoke at the annual meeting of the National Association of Black Journalists. And it was the same old show: the divisiveness, and the disrespect. And let me just say the American people deserve better.”
So far, it seems the American people are listening.
From Rolling Stone US
