Kamala Harris had stressed the need to test the "chemistry" with her possible future vice president. The aim was to achieve a smooth partnership at the head of the federal government and avoid tensions. Harris knows all about this: Relations with Joe Biden and his staff have not always been easy. This is one of the reasons why the Democratic candidate has chosen Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate, preferring him to the ambitious Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish and supports Israel, and is rejected by part of the party's left wing.
Walz made a name for himself in the media by attacking Donald Trump and his vice presidential candidate, JD Vance, calling them "weird." "These guys are just plain weird," he said at an election rally on Saturday, July 27. The word went viral on TikTok. Harris' supporters are delighted, and the candidate has taken it up.
At 60, Walz is about the same age as Harris (59), but with his sparse white hair, it's no offense to this former teacher to say he looks significantly older. "You do not leave that job with a full head of hair," he once tweeted about supervising cafeterias for 20 years. With his grandfatherly looks, he has a reassuring presence for middle America alongside Harris. Born in the bleak plains of Nebraska, he went north to study in Minnesota, became a teacher there with his wife and was elected governor of the state in 2019, after having been a representative in Congress for 12 years, from 2007 to 2019.
This man with a generous smile ticks a lot of boxes for a presidential campaign. In particular, he knows how to speak to rural, white America, even though he's a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, located on the left of the political spectrum. "Here's a guy who actually knows how to fish, this is a guy who actually knows how to hunt, this is a guy who served our country in the National Guard," Heidi Heitkamp, a former Democratic elected official from neighboring North Dakota, told the New York Times. The choice is a bit of a surprise, given that Minnesota has gone over to the Democrats. But Walz could help convince voters in other Great Lakes states, including Wisconsin, Michigan (Detroit) and Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Pittsburgh), which in 2016 made Trump's victory.
The press describes him as a man willing to help, and portrays his time as a middle school teacher in Mankato, a small town south of Minneapolis, as his defining experience. "If there were 100 people in a room and 99 loved him, he would work on the one who didn't until they did too," Pat Griffiths, a former social studies teacher, told the Washington Post. Walz, who taught geography, soon became involved with the school's American football team, supporting the children. "I don't want to be dramatic about it, but he maybe saved my life," said Daniel Clement, a former player who had fallen into bad company before meeting coach Walz, in the same article.
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