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Vice President Kamala Harris picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate on Tuesday, choosing an affable longtime politician who Democrats hope can keep newfound party unity alive in a campaign barreling toward Election Day.
Harris said in a post on social media that Walz has “delivered for working families” as a governor, coach, teacher and veteran. Walz called it “the honor of a lifetime” to be Harris’ vice presidential pick. The two will appear together in Philadelphia at an evening rally.
In choosing the 60-year-old Walz, she is turning to a Midwestern governor, military veteran and union supporter who helped enact an ambitious Democratic agenda for his state, including sweeping protections for abortion rights and generous aid to families.
“It’s great to have him on the team,” Harris wrote on X. “Now let’s get to work.”
He is joining Harris during one of the most turbulent periods in modern American politics, promising an unpredictable campaign ahead. Republicans have rallied around former President Donald Trump after his attempted assassination in July. Just weeks later, President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign, forcing Harris to unify Democrats and consider potential running mates over a breakneck two-week stretch.
Harris hopes to shore up her campaign’s standing across the upper Midwest, a critical region in presidential politics that often serves as a buffer for Democrats seeking the White House. The party remains haunted by Trump’s wins in Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016. Trump lost those states in 2020 but has zeroed in on them as he aims to return to the presidency this year and is expanding his focus to Minnesota.
Harris, second gentleman Doug Emhoff and Walz are set to appear together for an evening rally in Philadelphia, recalling a joint 2020 appearance by Biden and Harris in Wilmington, Delaware.
After Tuesday’s trip to Pennsylvania, they will spend the next five days flying thousands of miles around the country touring critical battleground states. They’ll visit Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Detroit on Wednesday and Phoenix and Las Vegas later in the week.
Planned stops in Savannah, Georgia, and Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, were postponed because of Tropical Storm Debby ’s effects.
A team of lawyers and political operatives led by former Attorney General Eric Holder pored over documents and conducted interviews with potential selections, and Harris herself met with her three finalists on Sunday. She mulled the decision over on Monday with top aides at the vice president’s residence in Washington and finalized it Tuesday morning, the people said.
Harris, the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to lead a major party ticket, initially considered nearly a dozen candidates before zeroing in on a handful of serious contenders, all of whom were white men. In landing on Walz, she sided with a low-key partner who has proved himself as a champion for Democratic causes.
“It’s no surprise that San Francisco Liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coast wannabe Tim Walz as her running-mate – Walz has spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State,” said Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s campaign press secretary. “Walz is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide.”
Walz has been a strong public advocate for Harris in her campaign against Trump and Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, labeling the Republicans “just weird” in an interview last month. Democrats have seized on the message and amplified it since then.
During a fundraiser for Harris on Monday in Minneapolis, Walz said: “It wasn’t a slur to call these guys weird. It was an observation.”
Walz, who grew up in the small town of West Point, Nebraska, was a social studies teacher, football coach and union member at Mankato West High School in Minnesota before he got into politics.
He won the first of six terms in Congress in 2006 from a mostly rural southern Minnesota district, and used the office to champion veterans issues. Walz served 24 years in the Army National Guard, rising to command sergeant major, one of the highest enlisted ranks in the military.
He ran for governor in 2018 on the theme of “One Minnesota” and won by more than 11 points.
As governor, Walz had to find ways to work in his first term with a legislature that was split between a Democratic-controlled House and a Republican-led Senate. Minnesota has a history of divided government, though, and the arrangement was surprisingly productive in his first year. But the COVID-19 pandemic hit Minnesota early in his second year, and bipartisan cooperation soon frayed.
Walz relied on emergency powers to lead the state’s response. Republicans chafed under restrictions that included lockdowns, closing schools and shuttering businesses. They retaliated by firing or forcing out some of his agency heads. But Minnesotans who were stuck at home also got to know Walz better through his frequent afternoon briefings in the early days of the crisis, which were broadcast and streamed statewide.
Walz won reelection in 2022 by nearly 8 points over his GOP challenger, Dr. Scott Jensen, a physician and vaccine skeptic. Democrats also kept control of the House and flipped the Senate to win the “trifecta” of full control of both chambers and the governor’s office for the first time in eight years. A big reason was the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which held that the Constitution doesn’t include a right to abortion. That hurt Minnesota Republicans, especially among suburban women.
“Tim has been in the news because the country and the world is seeing the guy we love so much,” U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Monday.
Ken Martin, chair of the Minnesota-Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party said young people he spoke to on the campaign trail were “Walz pilled.”
Walz and other Democrats went into the 2023 legislative session with an ambitious agenda — and a whopping $17.6 billion budget surplus to help fund it. Their proudest accomplishments included sweeping protections for abortion rights that included the elimination of nearly all restrictions Republicans had enacted in prior years, including a 24-hour waiting period and parental consent requirements. They also enacted new protections for trans rights, making the state a refuge for families coming from out of state for treatment for trans children.
Their other major accomplishments included tax credits for families with children that were aimed at slashing childhood poverty, as well as universal free school breakfasts and lunches for all students, regardless of family income. They also enacted a paid family and medical leave program, legalized recreational marijuana for adults and made it easier to vote.
Republicans complained that Walz and his fellow Democrats squandered a surplus that would have been better spent on permanent tax relief for everyone. And they’ve faulted the governor and his administration for lax oversight of pandemic programs that cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Federal prosecutors charged 70 people with defrauding federal food programs that funded meals for kids during the pandemic out of $250 million on Walz’s watch. Known as the Feeding Our Future scandal, it’s one of the country’s largest pandemic aid fraud cases. The Office of the Legislative Auditor, a nonpartisan watchdog, delivered a scathing report in June that said Walz’s Department of Education “failed to act on warning signs,” did not effectively exercise its authority and was ill-prepared to respond.
Republicans still criticize Walz for his response to the sometimes violent unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, which included the torching of a police station.
During a May fundraiser in St. Paul, Trump repeated his false claim that he was responsible for deploying the National Guard to quell the violence. “The entire city was burning down. … If you didn’t have me as president, you wouldn’t have Minneapolis today,” Trump said.
It was actually Walz who gave the order, which he issued in response to requests from the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul. But within Minnesota, GOP legislators said both Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey were too slow to act. And there was finger-pointing between Frey and Walz on who was responsible for not activating the Guard faster.
Walz has served often as a Biden-Harris surrogate and has made increasingly frequent appearances on national television. They included an interview on Fox News that irritated Trump so much that he posted on Truth Social, “They make me fight battles I shouldn’t have to fight.” Walz is also co-chair of the rules committee for the Democratic National Convention. And he led a White House meeting of Democratic governors with Biden following the president’s disastrous performance in his debate with Trump.
Putting Walz on the ticket could help Democrats hold the state’s 10 electoral votes and bolster the party more broadly in the Midwest. No Republican has won a statewide race in Minnesota since Tim Pawlenty was reelected governor in 2006, but GOP candidates for attorney general and state auditor came close in 2022.
Trump finished just 1.5 percentage points behind Democrat Hillary Clinton in the state in 2016. While Biden carried Minnesota by more than 7 points in 2020, Trump has taken to falsely claiming that he won the state last time and can do it again.
Minnesota has produced two vice presidents, Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale.
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Weird choice.
Not sure I agree with it being a weird choice. Walz is a moderate Democrat who is highly respected across the political platform. Yes, there were people under consideration that seemed to be getting more “airplay” but Shapiro was a lightning rod with respect to his stance on Gaza and Mark Kelly may have had some baggage because of the immigration debate. Add to that, his dear wife, Gabby may have had some significant challenges in a relocation to DC…I am sure her medical team in AZ is well established. Then there’s Pete….I really like Pete and wish it was “his time”…..
I know Walz will help to win over moderates in the upper midwest……he’s a good guy, with a good record and strong on labor. It is a good pick.
JW, nicely played….
I love that this method has worked so well against Trump and Vance that republicans are trying to make it a thing they use against two normal people…. and it is not working at all lol
You all are trying so hard to spin “weird” around and it just isn’t working.
Weird = An unexperienced VP candidate who thinks that people who don’t have kids are “sociopaths” and should have less of a say in society, while in the same breath advocating for policies that remove support and protections for families and has passed zero pieces of legislation in his 18-month tenure in politics.
Not weird = A candidate who has actually passed meaningful legislation for education, children’s health, family support, transportation, housing affordability, and food programs.
It’s weird that a major wing of the Democrat Party vetoed a Jewish vice president, Josh Shapiro. Why is that?
How do you get stuff done as a President? You get it through Congress.
If you’re a Presidential candidate, why wouldn’t you hire someone with 12 years of experience with a reputation of working across the aisle, both in Congress and as a governor … as opposed to someone who hasn’t even finishes their first term in the Senate, or even their first term as a Governor? Shapiro’s been a governor about as long as Vance has been a Senator.
Better question, DH … why did Donald Trump think JD Vance was the right person to be one heartbeat away from being the President of the United States?
I got my math wrong. Walz has 17 years.
Joe,
It’s weird that you’re defending the choice to shun the choice of Shapiro because the Hamas caucus of the DNC is now in control of your party, and Shapiro is, for some reason, weirdly the opposite of what the Hamas caucus wants.
Weird…
Sure, I’m defending something over your conspiracy theory. Speaking of, I thought the Democratic Party was run by George Soros? Isn’t he the mastermind behind everything bad these days? How did Soros fail? The sky is falling!
Here is some electoral math:
Michigan plus Wisconsin = 25
Pennsylvania = 19
You’ve got Kelly to help in Arizona, Shapiro in Pennsylvania, now Walz to work the upper Midwest. All areas that Harris has got to win if she has a chance. Maybe it’s weird because it doesn’t make sense to you.
Maybe Walz is just a DEI hire and they wanted a boring competent white Christian guy around … as opposed to the DEI hires in the Republican Party – Don Jr, Eric, Ivanka … remind me, why did they have top secret security clearances again?
Is this at all like when we were all told JFK was going to be more loyal to the Pope over the Constitution … history may not repeat, but it sure rhymes …
If we are talking about “wings” in parties, what exactly do you call it when an entire political party has been taking over by a bunch of folks who hate America and want a faux-democracy like Hungary or Russia? A bunch of people who if they can’t get their way, will blow everything up … just like Hamas …
We can keep going if you want to keep digging yourself a deeper hole. I might even come up with funnier things to reply with.
Joe,
Still with no answer why it’s so weird that the DNC did not want Shapiro to be the VP even though he would have been a far better pick compared to freak show Walz.
Weird…
Show us your proof.
Joe,
Shapiro is proudly Jewish.
How does the modern radical DNC view the Jewish state of Israel?
It’s weird how you can’t connect the two dots.
Very, very weird.
What’s really weird is that you hear things on Fox News and claim they’re from the DNC. I’ve done enough journalism to tell you that isn’t how things work.
So, try again.
What’s really weird is that a party that blames everything on George Soros every chance they get wants to cast stones from their glass house.
I think you’re projecting.
Joe,
The DSA proudly tweeted that their pressure campaign on top DNC leaders worked.
They actually named Shapiro’s IDF experience and his Jewish history and support as the factors.
It’s weird you glossed over this inconvenient truth.
Very weird indeed. Do you denounce?
Denounce what? Getting all your news from Fox and expecting someone normal to know about it?
I literally have never heard any of this nonsense until I type it into a search engine and it comes up linking me to a Fox News story.
Go read actual reporting about Shapiro’s flaws. The sexual harassment case. Fettermam warning Harris that’s Shapiro is a preening opportunist. And how about Harris wanted a boring Midwestern senator type as her VP when she was spitballing candidates in 2020 before her campaign flamed out.
I think what we are proving here is that the world is full of a lot more factors than you can process. You want everything to come down to one thing so you can pick a side, be for or against, and get good and angry about that one thing… and ignore everything else. Yet another victim of the conservative media anger cycle.
Or, you realize deep down how messed up the Republicans are … and you’re seeking false equivalence.
Joe,
It’s weird that you’re being oblivious.
Do you denounce the DNC for passing over PA Gov Josh Shapiro for his Jewish heritage and connections because they were worried about losing the Hamas caucus, a core constituency of the modern Democrat Party?
I can’t denounce something that you can’t prove is the case. I’ve been begging you for days now for something, anything.
Just because you repeat the same stuff you heard on conservative media over and over doesn’t make it true. You might start to believe it, but that doesn’t make it true.
The DSA, whatever that is, does not equal the DNC.
Link away, one per post or the commenting engine eats it.
Your turn.
Thank goodness she didn’t pick that former mayor of South Bend. That guy is a disaster as Transportation Secretary.
Great choice! Teacher, farmer, businessman, gun owner, veteran, congressman, governor, husband, father. Everyone’s favorite “uncle.”
JD Vance will not want to debate him!
Isn’t it weird that the Democrats vetoed the stronger candidate of Josh Shapiro? Does Shapiro have any heritage that would cause the modern Democrat Party to freak out and choose the freak show Walz? Very weird!
Lol you voted for the guy who was found liable for, and openly brags about, sexual assault and a grifter who lied about his past, has zero legislative experience, and openly hates women and people without kids. You can tone it down on the “Democrats are freakshows” rhetoric, it’s not working.
Wow, AR! More deflection! You seriously can’t defend the antisemitism that is running rampant through the DNC. It’s like the 1960s all over again with the Democrats.
Weird!
90 days is a lifetime, but the Dems are going full Joe Donnelley mode, donning flannel shirts and pretend middle American values. Is a commercial with Kamala chopping wood off the table?
They are also acting like grown adults with an election to win. GOP nominated a cartoon character who is now the stammering incoherent old man in the race. Great job, primary voters
Trump has been an incoherent old man the entire time. He’s not changed since he came down the escalator.
The Republican Party had their choice to banish him to the hinterlands and instead decided he and his ilk are the future.
They deserve their fate together in the dustbin of history. The sooner than happens, and the sooner an actual coherent conservative political party arises from their ashes without the charlatans and purveyors of Christian sharia law that boiled over into Trumpism, the better.
Hey Joe,
Why did the Democrat Party not choose the better candidate of Josh Shapiro? Weird…
You should ask a Democrat, not a Lugar Republican … then again I’m pretty old-school and I don’t get all freaked out about people’s religions or even their sexuality like a lot of the current Trumpublicans.
Then again I look at the chaos of Trump’s four years, 98% of which was caused by Trump himself as he thrashed around reminding us all what a kakistocracy was like, showing exactly why Putin wanted him to win … and the return to boringness we had under Obama that Biden brought and I think that’s a good thing. I can see where those of you addicted to the right-wing outrage cycle (you have more in common with the kids addicted to their phones than you realize) never saw it, but I’m not sure how to help you.
“Drain the swamp”. Sure. yeah, that’s a good idea. Trade quiet competence and loyalty to a country for bootlickers loyal to one man. That’s ended well everywhere else it’s been tried… did any of you pay ANY attention in history?
At least the republicans had a primary. The democratics had a coronation of the only somewhat viable choice and what a winner she is. Could get a solitary delegate when she tried it on her own. Remember that ‘incoherent’ repub candidate retired the last democrat he faced. My guess is Kamala will hide in the basement as her predecessor did first time round or she’d suffer the same fate should she debate..
As for the stellar pick for VP, appears he may be left of her if that’s possible. Advocated for the removal of a child from parental care if the parents refuse gender surgery. There’s a guy that really thinks straight. And they call repubs facist!
“Trump calls off ABC debate, suggests Fox News face-off instead“
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/03/trump-calls-off-abc-debate-suggests-fox-news-face-off-instead-00172554
It’s amazing to me how far gone so many of you are.
Hey, Jeff! It’s spelled, “Fascist.”
A.R., it’s “inexperienced,” not “unexperienced.” But go on.
Well, the Dems are sure happy….let’s see, the party of death will make sure you die in the womb, get killed on the street by guns or fentanyl! $34 Trillion in debt and soaring, only jobs “created” are government jobs to create more control over me and you, open borders, a “woke” military that probably cannot even surrender correctly!
But calling a former marine “weird” is your calling card! Our only hope is that their voters are so high they’ll forget to vote…Oh, I forgot, that won’t matter…someone will just complete a “mail-in” ballot on their behalf!
Okay, grandpa. Let’s get you back to the living room.
Some of us are talented enough to fill in our mail-in ballots while high. Don’t underestimate our skills! In all seriousness, I don’t understand the Republican hatred of mail-in voting other than blindly following your fascist leader. It’s so great for local elections where you don’t know all the candidates, and can actually take the time to research them. Indiana would be wise to embrace it.
The funny thing is that Florida was one of the first states to move to mail in voting because it allowed the state’s demographic, seniors to easily vote. When it increased voter turnout across the country it was then bad, but guess what? Florida still has mail in voting with a few more silly rules like making people sign up every election season vs automatic mailing.
Maybe they have all those silly rules because the folks at the Villages keep double voting …
Party of death?
You mean the party that, when presented with a pregnant woman enduring pregnancy complications that could cost a woman their life, wants a doctor to second-guess their judgement because they have to worry what Todd Rokita will think about it?
The party that, when presented with funding shortfalls, decided that it was better to cut spending on medically complex people than dare touch a rainy day fund?
The party that sits on their hands while hospitals buy up nursing homes and spend the money intended for the care of the elderly on shiny new hospitals and CEO salaries?
Please, go on more about the deep sanctity of life that Republicans have. I may struggle to hear your words over their actions. At best, they’re interested in “life” only if it doesn’t cost them one red cent.
For starters, it is my perception that most anti-abortion advocates aren’t pro-life…they are pro-birth. What happens to the child after it is born is, well, not their concern. Which helps explain the Indiana General Assembly taking the funding away from the medically complex people…
As for why Shapiro didn’t get the nomination, well, maybe because it was determined what the ticket really needed was a solid Midwestern Governor type who has advocated for and secured many of the rights deemed important by most people in the US. Shapiro is a great governor. He’s likely a great person. He’ll be a Senator someday, or a President or VP. Or just a great governor who leads his state well.
And I note the Republican ticket seems a bit short on Jewish candidates…or women…or historically minority candidates…
Tim,
Everybody knows why the DNC didn’t pick Shapiro. There is no making an excuse for it anymore. The Hamas wing of the DNC has taken over.
DH is so desperate, it’s amazing. The right-wing crazies are really grasping at whatever straw they can. They have absolutely nothing to run on and are so done.
AR, let’s be patient and see if DH can get off the couch and reply to us.
*snort*
AR and Joe, are you seriously trying to defend antisemitism that is rampant throughout the DNC?
It’s really weird that you are defending it… it’s almost as if… you agree with it? What are your thoughts on Israel?
‘Nuff said.
My thoughts about Israel?
They have every right to defend themselves.
Hamas is wrong to target civilians.
Israel is wrong to build settlements the way they are.
Netanyahu is not a good leader for the country.
I think it’s a lot more complicated and nuanced, as most things are, and I don’t profess to be an expert.
There it is! Found it!
Jews getting raped and slaughtered by a genocidal terrorist state is “nuanced”.
No wonder you’re such a Walz fan. Very weird.
Ha. You didn’t share your thoughts.
Joe,
You think it’s funny that Hamas went into Israel to rape and murder Jews?
That’s beyond weird. That’s actually… fairly typical coming from the Hamas caucus of the DNC.
You lied about what I said to a hysterical level and then you refused to put yourself out there and offer any sort of insight into your thinking on a topic. Kind of weird.
Either you can’t read for understanding or you don’t have any original thoughts.
I can’t do all the work here. What are you hiding?