Kamala Harris picked Tim Walz as her running mate Tuesday, August 6, opting for the Minnesota governor as the partner most likely to complement her in a historic – and bruising – bid for the White House. Walz had been on a shortlist with a string of other Democratic figures seen as broadening Harris's appeal as she sprints into the contest against Donald Trump.
Expectations had always been that Harris would pick a white man to balance the ticket − and the kind of Democrat who can help counter attacks from Republicans that she is too far to the left. Walz fits that description as a 60-year-old Midwesterner with a folksy manner from a state that could be light years from the coastal elites of California, where Harris comes from, or the East Coast. He will also appeal to progressives after having championed popular Democratic policies including cannabis legalization and increasing worker protections.
The duo will hit the campaign trail immediately, launching an intense, five-day swing through battleground states starting Tuesday in the biggest prize, Pennsylvania.
Some Republicans are already reacting to the selection of Walz as Harris' VP pick. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called it the "most left-wing ticket in American history" and accused Walz of not doing enough to protect Minnesota during the 2020 protests over the killing of George Floyd. He said "Walz sat by and let Minneapolis burn."
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.
Now, Harris and Walz will face the first test of their ground game as they make the nationwide swing this week from Philadelphia to Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada. Pennsylvania is part of the "blue wall" that carried Biden to the White House in 2020, alongside Michigan and Wisconsin. That was one of the main reasons many expected Harris to instead pick that state's governor, Josh Shapiro. Also on the vice presidential shortlist had been former astronaut and current senator Mark Kelly, of Arizona, and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear.
Trump was riding high politically last month after surviving an assassination attempt at a rally, and then using the Republican convention to highlight his image of vigor against the physically frail Biden. But with Biden's dramatic exit and Harris's fast start, he is scrambling to recalibrate.
At a rally last Saturday in Georgia, Trump called Harris a "Marxist" and a "radical left freak," claiming she would cause an "economic crash." Three days earlier, he shocked many when he told an audience of Black journalists that Harris had "turned Black" out of political expediency.