Harris selects Minnesota Gov. Walz as running mate

Walz had been on the shortlist of vice presidential candidates along with a host of other Democratic figures seen as able to broaden Harris’ appeal as she launches a race against Donald Trump.

Aiming to make history as the first female president, Harris, already a trailblazer as the first female vice president and the first Black and South Asian, has little time before Election Day on Nov. 5.

“I’m proud to announce that I’ve asked @Tim_Walz to be my running mate,” she posted on X.

“As a governor, coach, teacher and veteran, he has served hardworking families like yours. It’s great to have him on the team.”

Expectations were always that Harris would choose a white man to balance the ticket and help win over white, male, working-class voters, a demographic that propelled Trump to victory in 2016.

Walz fits that description: A 60-year-old Midwesterner with country manners, decades of military experience and a rural outlook — a gun-owning Democrat who tweets about hunting.

The former teacher and high school sports coach flipped a Republican district to win a U.S. House seat in a state considered light-years away from the coastal elites of California, Harris’ home turf, or the East Coast.

At the same time, Walz will appeal to the left to champion popular Democratic policies, including legalizing cannabis, increasing worker protections, safeguarding abortion rights and supporting tighter gun restrictions.

The Trump campaign immediately branded the Minnesotan a “dangerously liberal extremist” seeking to impose California values ​​on the nation.

But “to characterize him as left-wing is unrealistic,” Nancy Pelosi, a former House speaker who worked extensively with him in Congress, told MSNBC.

Walz “is in the center. He is a Democrat from the heart of America.”

Walz called his appointment “the honor of a lifetime” and joked that it felt like “the first day of school.”

He and Harris will hit the campaign trail immediately, beginning a five-day tour of battleground states starting Tuesday in the top prize, Pennsylvania.

After securing the official Democratic nomination, Harris will head to the national convention in Chicago in two weeks with full control of her party.

It has been a remarkable journey for Harris, who only entered the race last month when President Joe Biden, 81, dropped out amid growing concerns about his mental acuity.

In a campaign barely two weeks long, the 59-year-old former prosecutor and senator has shattered fundraising records, drawn huge crowds and dominated social media on her way to erasing what had been Trump’s growing lead in the polls over Biden.

The latest University of Massachusetts Amherst presidential poll released Monday shows Harris leading Trump nationally by three percentage points (46 to 43), compared with Trump’s four-point lead over Biden in January.

In the key states that decide the Electoral College outcome in the US election, Harris is neck and neck with Trump, who stunned the world with his 2016 presidential victory but was defeated by Biden in 2020.

The choice of a running mate was seen as the first big test for Harris in her bid to become the nation’s chief executive.

Now Harris and Walz will face the first hurdle of their ground strategy as they make a cross-country drive this week from Philadelphia to Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada. Tropical Storm Debby has forced the postponement of a stop in the disputed state of Georgia and, according to media reports, North Carolina as well.

Pennsylvania is part of the “blue wall” that carried Biden to victory in 2020, along with Michigan and Wisconsin. That was one of the main reasons why many expected Harris to choose the state’s governor, Josh Shapiro.

Also on the list of vice presidential candidates were former astronaut and current U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.

Trump was riding high politically last month after surviving an assassination attempt at a rally, then used the Republican convention to play up his image of vigor against the physically frail Biden.

But with Biden’s dramatic exit and Harris’s fast start, he is struggling to recalibrate.

At a rally in Georgia on Saturday, Trump called Harris a “Marxist” who would cause an “economic crisis.”

Three days earlier, he shocked many when he told an audience of black journalists that Harris had “gone black” for political convenience.

SMS-MLM