“Kamala Harris’s pick of Tim Walz for the vice-presidential spot on her ticket is the ‘party unity, good vibes’ choice.
As a black woman from liberal California, it was immediately clear she would want to ‘balance’ her ticket with a white man with a reassuring demeanour and record. Tim Walz fits that bill. He is a former high school teacher, football coach, and National Guard veteran, who unlike many in top-tier politics neither attended an Ivy League university nor studied law. His first elected office was as a Congressman representing a district in rural Minnesota. In that incarnation, his record was relatively moderate, as one would expect of a Democrat representing a district that demographics and polarisation would have made more naturally Republicans. In his second act, however, as governor of Minnesota since 2019, with the aid of a Democratic legislative majority, he has assembled a strong record of progressive policy achievements. Thanks to his time in the House, he had the support of influential former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and is trusted by the party establishment. Thanks to his record in Minnesota, he also became the favoured candidate of the progressive left once he began to attract online buzz during the past couple of weeks of VP speculation.
He did a remarkably good job during that period of making his own weather, appearing relentlessly on television to talk up Kamala Harris’s candidacy, bash Republicans, and in so doing boost his own profile from previously very low levels outside Minnesota to widespread national admiration in a very short time. His ability to deliver strong messages and attack lines, in plain language and with good humour, made him seem like a happy warrior of just the sort the party might need at this juncture. He also made his mark on the messaging of the whole campaign by branding Donald Trump, JD Vance, and preoccupations of their right-wing movement generally as “weird”. This attack line, a pivot from more pious denunciations of illiberalism and authoritarianism that have been the party’s main mode of rhetoric in the Trump era, caught on and was repeated through the week by Democrats across all platforms, putting Republicans on the back foot during an important period when the Harris campaign was seeking to define itself and its opponent.
The Walz pick was still something of a surprise even though everyone knew it was a serious possibility. Conventional wisdom in recent days had been anticipating Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania would get the nod. A popular serving governor of a key swing state, and an impressive orator, the logic for picking him was in some ways compelling. He had a louder record on Israel than other contenders, however, which didn’t endear him to the left. That was unlikely to be enough on its own to tip things against him, but a couple of messy in-state scandals (one to do with the handling of a sexual harassment claim against an adviser; one to do with how his Attorney General’s office handled a suspicious death case) also portended some unwelcome news cycles. The Harris campaign will have weighed all these issues during vetting, and perhaps decided that, all things considered, Shapiro wasn’t the right pick for the moment.
Harris also met with the contenders before making her final decision, of course, so it may be that the decisive factor was that she was convinced Walz was the one she could work with best. By all accounts, everyone who meets Tim Walz comes away liking him. The Harris campaign will be keenly hoping the wider electorate feels the same once they’ve been introduced.”
