File : Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a former school teacher was picked as VP Kamala Harris‘s running mate
With the pick of Tim Walz, the 2024 matchup is set and shaping up to be another razor-thin election. A new PBS News/NPR/Marist poll shows Kamala Harris with a three-point lead over Donald Trump nationally, within the poll’s margin of error.
Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her Democratic running mate for the 2024 presidential election. The two are scheduled to appear together later in the day Tuesday in Philadelphia.
“Tim is a battle-tested leader who has an incredible track record of getting things done for Minnesota families,” Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, wrote in a campaign message blasted out to supporters. “I know that he will bring that same principled leadership to our campaign, and to the office of the vice president.”
Walz, 60, confirmed that he had accepted the position in a social media post, nodding to his decades-long career as a high school teacher: “I’m all in. Vice President Harris is showing us the politics of what’s possible. It reminds me a bit of the first day of school.”
President Joe Biden, who formerly helmed the Democratic ticket, endorsed Harris’ pick on Tuesday. He has been watching the campaign from the sidelines ever since dropping out of the race in late July.
“The Harris-Walz ticket will be a powerful voice for working people and America’s great middle class,” Biden wrote in a post on X. “It’s time for all Democrats—and indeed all Americans—committed to freedom, democracy, and American leadership in the world to rally behind the Harris-Walz ticket.”
Biden and Harris spoke on the phone Tuesday morning before she officially announced Walz as the pick, according to a White House spokesperson. The president also congratulated the Minnesota governor on being tapped.
Walz in the past two weeks has been on a short list for the vice presidential candidate spot, along with fellow Democratic rising stars Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. Harris made calls to the contenders who were not selected Tuesday morning, a source told NBC News.
US President Joe Biden speaks with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz before boarding Marine One at Dutch Creek Farms in Northfield, Minnesota, on November 1, 2023, as he returns to the White House. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | Afp | Getty Images
Shapiro, who was reportedly the second-most likely pick, put out a statement in an effort to be a good sport about the Harris campaign’s choice.
“Governor Tim Walz is an exceptionally strong addition to the ticket who will help Kamala move our country forward,” Shapiro said. “Pennsylvanians elected me to a four-year term as their Governor, and my work here is far from finished.”
Shapiro is scheduled to deliver remarks at the Harris-Walz rally in Philadelphia.
Walz’s quick rise
Walz, Minnesota’s two-term governor, began the veepstakes process with relatively low name recognition nationally. But his profile quickly rose as a result of media appearances, and Walz won over skeptics with his affable Midwestern demeanor and his biography.
This relatively low name recognition could also be an asset to Harris, however. It forces the Trump campaign to spend precious time and resources racing against the Harris campaign to be first to define Walz in the eyes of voters.
Trump, Vance ‘weird’, ‘creepy as hell’, says Walz
Walz said Tuesday night as he was introduced as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in the upcoming presidential election made a few pointed quips at former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, and his running mate, JD Vance. He said that Trump and Vance are ‘weird’, ‘creepy as hell’.
The Trump campaign has already begun constructing a battalion of attacks against Walz, accusing him of supporting “open border” policies and “defunding the police,” as well as other spin attempting to portray the Harris-Walz ticket as radically left of center.
“Just like Kamala Harris, Tim Walz is a dangerously liberal extremist, and the Harris-Walz California dream is every American’s nightmare,” Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
But a key Democratic king maker was quick to push back.
“To characterize him as left is just so unreal,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday morning. “He’s right down the middle. He’s a heartland of America Democrat.”
Walz was born in the small town of West Point, Nebraska, and joined the Army National Guard after graduating from high school in Butte, Nebraska.
He later worked as a high school teacher for several decades, during which he coached football and was a faculty advisor for the school’s gay-straight alliance.
He won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006, where he served six terms, and was elected Minnesota’s governor in 2018. Walz is the only person on both the Democratic and Republican tickets who served in the House.
Walz offers Harris connections to Capitol Hill, a potential appeal to rural voters, a record of progressive policy victories, and well-sharpened media skills.
NBC News/ Ya Libnan
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