Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, citing the Minnesota governor’s ability to complement her in her historic and challenging presidential campaign.
Walz was on a shortlist alongside a number of other Democratic personalities viewed as widening Harris’ appeal as she enters the race against Donald Trump.
Harris, who was previously the first female and first Black and South Asian vice president, is aiming to create history as the first woman president. She has limited time until Election Day on November 5.
CNN initially reported the decision early Tuesday morning.
Expectations had always been that Harris would choose a white male to balance the ticket — and a Democrat who could help fight Republican accusations that she is too far left.
Walz fits that description as a 60-year-old Midwesterner with a folksy demeanor from a state that could be light years away from the coastal elites of California, Harris’ home state, or the East Coast.
He will also appeal to progressives, having advocated for popular Democratic ideas like as cannabis legalization and more worker rights.
The duo will hit the campaign trail right away, embarking on an aggressive five-day swing through battleground states beginning Tuesday in Pennsylvania, the greatest prize.
Harris, who secured the formal Democratic nomination overnight, may now proceed to the national convention in Chicago in two weeks with complete control of her party.
Harris’ path has been extraordinary, considering she only entered the campaign last month when President Joe Biden resigned due to growing worries about his mental acuity and capacity to serve a second term at the age of 81.
In a campaign that is only two weeks old, the 59-year-old former prosecutor has broken money records, drew large audiences, and dominated social media on her route to erasing Trump’s rising poll lead over Biden.
According to the most recent presidential survey released by the University of Massachusetts Amherst on Monday, Harris leads Trump nationwide by three points (46 percent to 43 percent), compared to Trump’s four-point lead over Biden in January.
First major test
In the swing states that decide the Electoral College contest in US elections, Harris is neck and neck with Trump, who shocked the world with his 2016 presidential victory but was beaten by Biden in 2020.
Picking a vice presidential running mate was seen as the first big test for Harris in her bid to become the country’s chief executive.
“It tells you about her thought process,” Amy Walter, a polling expert from Cook Political Report newsletter, told CBS News.
Harris and Walz will now face the first test of their ground game as they travel across the country this week, from Philadelphia to Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada. Tropical Storm Debby has prompted the postponing of a stop in Georgia, as well as North Carolina, according to media reports.
Pennsylvania, together with Michigan and Wisconsin, formed the “blue wall” that propelled Biden to the presidency in 2020. That was one of the key reasons why many expected Harris to choose Josh Shapiro, the governor of that state.
Former astronaut and current Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, as well as Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, were both on the vice presidential shortlist.
Trump was riding high politically last month after surviving an assassination attempt at a rally and then used the Republican convention to contrast his strength with Biden’s physical frailty.
However, with Biden’s abrupt resignation and Harris’s quick start, he is scrambling to adjust.
At a rally in Georgia last Saturday, Trump described Harris as a “Marxist” and a “radical left freak,” alleging she would create a “economic crash.”
Three days earlier, he stunned many by telling a group of Black journalists that Harris had “turned Black” for political reasons.
Whereas Biden has blasted Trump as a threat to democracy, given his extraordinary refusal to recognize his 2020 loss, Harris’s campaign has polished a sharper — and more meme-friendly — message centered on portraying Trump and his vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance as “weird.”
On Saturday, the Harris campaign said Trump was “scared” to face her after turning down a previously scheduled aired debate on ABC, but that he would be willing to debate her on Fox News, a network that has long supported him.