Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to join her on the Democratic ticket, ending her speedy search for a running mate by elevating the folksy Midwesterner who turned the word “weird” into the signature political attack of the summer.
Walz is not terribly well-known across the country. He does not represent a critical swing state. But, as far as many Democrats are concerned, his rural background, liberal leanings and merry sense of humor have turned him into the hottest Minnesota export since Scotch tape.
In choosing Walz, Harris has calculated that, in a hypersonic political campaign, Democrats need fellow feeling — and fun! — more than they need a conventional political advantage. Walz, perhaps more than any other contender on Harris’s shortlist, was the vibes pick for a vibes election.
A former high-school teacher and football coach, Walz is beloved by Democrats for backing policies like paid family leave. He has delighted his party in recent weeks with the simple suggestion that one reason voters should reject Trump and other Republicans is that they are just “weird.”
And, even though Minnesota has not backed a Republican for president since Richard Nixon in 1972, Democrats are hoping his regional appeal will help them lock down Midwestern states like Wisconsin and Michigan, which are seen as crucial to a Harris victory. Before he became governor, Walz represented a rural swath of southern Minnesota in Congress for 12 years, which means he has experience winning over conservative voters who have not been as crucial to Harris’s political ascent.
“In Governor Walz, Democrats get the left’s full policy agenda from someone who often looks like he just climbed down from his deer stand,” former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty told my colleague, Reid Epstein.
Walz’s liberal record, however, is likely to open him up to attacks from Republicans, who have already berated him for his handling of the violent protests that followed the murder of George Floyd by police officers in the summer of 2020. On Tuesday morning, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a Republican, called the ticket the “most left-wing” in American history.
Walz will make his debut as running mate this evening in Philadelphia. I’ll be back then!
