Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, choosing a champion of progressive politics and a plain-spoken heartland to help win over rural white voters, US media reported.
Walz, a 60-year veteran of the U.S. Army National Guard and former teacher, was elected to a Republican district in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006 and served 12 years before being elected governor of Minnesota in 2018.
As governor, Walz pushed a progressive agenda that includes free school meals, goals to address climate change, tax cuts for the middle class and expanded paid leave for Minnesota workers.
Walz has long advocated for women's reproductive rights, but has also shown conservative leanings, representing a rural district in the U.S. House of Representatives, championing agricultural interests and supporting gun rights.
Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, adds a popular Midwestern politician whose home state reliably votes Democratic in presidential elections but is close to Wisconsin and Michigan, two crucial battleground states.
Such states are seen as key in deciding this year's election, and Walz is widely seen as an expert at connecting with white rural voters who have overwhelmingly voted for Republican Donald Trump, Harris' rival for the White House, in recent years.
The Harris campaign is hoping Walz's extensive career in the National Guard, coupled with a successful run as a high school football coach, and his dad-joke videos will attract voters who aren't already committed to Trump's second term in the White House.
Harris, 59, revived the Democratic Party's electoral victory hopes after becoming its nominee after President Joe Biden, 81, ended his failed re-election bid under pressure from the party on July 21.
Walz was relatively unknown nationally until the Harris “veepstakes” heated up, but his profile has skyrocketed since then. The popular congressman reportedly had the support of powerful former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who helped convince Biden to drop out of the race.
Harris and Walz will face Trump and running mate JD Vance, also a Midwestern military veteran, in the Nov. 5 election.
Walz, stumped for Harris, sometimes wearing a camouflage baseball cap and T-shirt, attacked Trump and Vance as “weird,” a catchy insult that was picked up by the Harris campaign, social media and Democratic activists.
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Walz gave the nascent Harris campaign a new attack line in an interview in late July: “Those are the weird people on the other side: They want to take away the books. They want to be in your examination room,” referring to the banning of books and female reproductive consultations with doctors.
Walz also challenged Trump and Vance's claims that they have middle-class credentials.
“There's still talk of the middle class.” A real estate robber and venture capitalist trying to tell us they understand who we are? They don't know who we are,” Walz said in an interview with MSNBC.
That approach struck a chord with young voters, whom Harris needs to reengage. David Hogg, co-founder of the gun safety group March for Our Lives, described him as a “great communicator”.
Walz is “a bit of a unicorn,” said Ryan Dawkins, a political science professor at Carleton College in Minnesota — a man born in a small town in rural Nebraska who is able to deliver Harris' message to core Democratic voters as well as those who have been failed by the party. achieved in recent years.
Dawkins praised his ability to connect with rural voters. It's a group the Biden administration has tried to reach with infrastructure spending and other pragmatic policies, but so far with little messaging success.
In the 2016 election, Trump won 59 percent of rural voters; in 2020, that number rose to 65 percent, according to Pew Research, even after Trump lost the election.
In the 2022 race for governor, Walz won with 52.27 percent to his Republican opponent's 44.61 percent, although several parts of rural Minnesota voted for the opponent.
While Walz has supported Democratic Party orthodoxy on issues ranging from legalized abortion and same-sex marriage to the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, he has also garnered a centrist voting record during his congressional career.
According to The Almanac of American Politics, he was a staunch supporter of government support for farmers and military veterans, as well as gun owners' rights, earning praise from the National Rifle Association.
He subsequently registered a failing grade with the NRA after supporting gun control measures during his first campaign for governor.
Walz's shift from a centrist representing a single rural congressional district to a more progressive politician as governor may have been a response to the demands of voters in big cities like the Minneapolis-St. Pavel. But it leaves him open to Republican attacks, Dawkins said in a phone interview.
“She runs the risk of reinforcing some of the worst fears people have about Kamala Harris being a San Francisco liberal,” Dawkins said.
Walz has a counterattack ready.
“What a monster. Kids are eating and their bellies are full so they can go to school and women are making their own health care decisions,” Walz said in an interview with CNN in July. “So if they want to tag me right there, I'm more than happy to take that tag.
As the state's top representative, Walz mandated the use of face coverings during the COVID-19 pandemic and signed a law making marital rape illegal. He presided over several years of budget surpluses in Minnesota en route to his 2022 re-election.
During this campaign, Walz touted the support of several influential unions, including the state AFL-CIO, firefighters, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), teachers, and others.
His tenure was marked by the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murder. Walz appointed the state's attorney to lead the prosecution in the case because people “don't believe that justice can be done.”
