Kamala Harris announces Tim Walz as running mate
Harris made her choice on Tuesday through a video call to Walz, elevating the former teacher and army national guard veteran to join the Democratic ticket and help lead the party’s fight to defeat former President Donald Trump.
US Vice-President Kamala Harris announced Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, as her running mate ahead of the country’s presidential election.
Harris made her choice on Tuesday through a video call to Walz, elevating the former teacher and army national guard veteran to join the Democratic ticket and help lead the party’s fight to defeat former President Donald Trump.
CNN reports that Walz emerged from the most accelerated vice-presidential search in modern history from a shortlist that included half a dozen Democrats, including Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro and Arizona senator Mark Kelly.
The vice-president held in-person interviews with Walz, Shapiro and Kelly on Sunday.
In a remarkable two-week period, Walz ascended from a third-tier candidate to a final contender in the view of Harris and her vetting team. He was propelled by support from across the Democratic Party, progressive and moderate groups alike.
“He talks and looks like a lot of the voters we’ve lost to Trump,” said a longtime Democratic operative who was supportive of Walz from the day President Joe Biden stepped aside.
In March, Walz accompanied Harris when she became the first sitting vice president to visit a clinic that performs abortions.
A source close to Walz said that visit, along with the time Harris spent with the governor as he campaigned for reelection in 2022, had a “big impact.”
“The chemistry was really important to Harris, and it really clicked for both of them,” the source said. “Then, on top of that, the Harris campaign, like all of us, saw how energizing Walz was for the base.”
Trump’s campaign has already begun crafting a narrative around Harris decision on Walz, with one source saying the vice president “bent the knee to the anti-semitic, anti-Israel left and chosen someone as dangerously liberal as she is.”
Shapiro, considered another finalist for the role, is Jewish and has been critical of some demonstrators who have protested Israel’s war against Hamas.
Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Walz “has spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State.”
