Like so many developments in this turbulent US election year, Kamala Harris’ nomination of Tim Walz as her running mate was not foreseeable just a few weeks ago. Instead of strengthening her team with a Democrat from a crucial swing state – or even a state that usually votes Republican – Harris apparently decided at the last minute to go with the 60-year-old former congressman and incumbent governor of Minnesota. Walz is a white man from a rural state in the Midwest. His nomination has the potential to win back some rural regions and states that are currently firmly in Republican hands. This could be a good strategy to reach enough Democratic voters in the Electoral College. Walz’s strengths are obvious: He was a public school teacher and football coach for over a decade and served in the Army National Guard. In 2006, he won in a previously Republican-held district in rural Minnesota and successfully defended that seat in several difficult subsequent rounds of voting. He is both relatively progressive and a gun owner. Walz is a strong addition to Team Harris. But he also has some weaknesses that should not be ignored. This starts with pure geography and extends to his time as governor of Minnesota, when the country was shaken by great unrest and upheaval.
Walz became nationally known when he first called Republicans “weird.”
The Democrats face several huge challenges that the Harris campaign, however well it may be working, cannot easily solve. The election of Walz could help address the issue of working-class voters. Many workers have turned away from the Democratic Party in recent years, especially in the wake of Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory. Whites are by far the largest voting bloc, but socially conservative blacks and Latinos have also defected to the Republicans. Two other factors work in Walz’s favor: progressives like him, and he comes across well on television. The latter may have been particularly important for Harris’ team. Walz rose to national fame when he first called Republicans “weird.” After JD Vance’s tirades about “childless cat women” like Harris, this became a kind of backlash and rallying cry from the Democrats. In general, the differences between Vance and Walz are obvious. This could be good for the Democrats: Walz is 20 years older, has significantly more experience in government and seems more suitable for television. Harris could become the first female president and only the second non-white person to hold the highest office in the USA. She has apparently decided that she needs a politician at her side for this election campaign against Trump who is very different from her. In addition to the external characteristics, Walz’s liberalism is not Californian. Rather, he belongs to a dying political species: a left-wing populist from the “heartland” of the USA.
In contrast to his opponent as Harris’s running mate, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Walz scores points on the Middle East issue.
Within the Biden administration, Harris has often seemed sidelined from important policy initiatives. Despite her current high profile, she often appears to be an unknown quantity. In some ways, that makes her choice of vice presidential candidate even more significant. Walz’s nomination can already give party supporters an idea of what a President Harris – regardless of her previous role as vice president – would like to do and achieve. On various policy issues, particularly with regard to the war between Israel and Hamas, Walz is appeasing the recalcitrant progressive wing of the Democratic Party for now. He has a certain populist track record that should give Harris a boost. Walz has signed several worker-friendly laws, including one on standards in nursing homes, an antitrust ban on certain competition clauses, and a stop to so-called “captive audience” meetings in which employees are required to attend anti-union lectures as part of their working hours. As governor of Minnesota, he immediately enshrined abortion rights in the state after the Roe v. Wade ruling. He also signed legislation protecting gay and transgender rights and supported the creation of a state program that provides workers with paid and family-related sick leave. His other achievements, which have been well received by the party’s left, include allowing undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, legalizing marijuana, a relatively restrictive gun law, and a nationwide school lunch program. Walz also signed a law that restores the right to vote to ex-offenders. Governor Walz’s foreign policy record is of course modest. In contrast to his opponent as Harris’s running mate, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Walz scores points on the Middle East issue: Shapiro is unequivocally on Israel’s side and has therefore engaged in tough confrontations with pro-Palestinian demonstrators. When Joe Biden was still considered a presidential candidate, many in the Democratic Party feared mass protests at the party convention in Chicago at the end of August. The Harris-Walz duo could defuse at least some of these tensions. In addition, in the important swing state of Michigan, with its large Arab-American population, Walz is more likely than people like Shapiro to be able to improve relations between the party and the electorate, which have suffered greatly under the Biden administration.
Pennsylvania, where Shapiro is governor, could face a negative outcome in the November election. the factor that ultimately decides whether Donald Trump returns to the White House.
Of course, the same applies to Walz as to all other running mates: Ultimately, they are not particularly important or even decisive in the election. Voters are more likely to look at the leading candidates. Nevertheless, there are some risks in favoring Walz over Shapiro. Statistician Nate Silver argued recently that Pennsylvania, where Shapiro is governor, could be the “tipping point” in the November election. This state could therefore the The election will be a factor that ultimately decides whether Donald Trump returns to the White House. Biden narrowly won Pennsylvania in the 2020 election after Trump flipped the state from Democratic to Republican in 2016 – also by a tiny margin. The loss of Shapiro, who won the governor’s office in 2022 by 15 percentage points, increases the pressure on the Harris-Walz duo. For an overall victory, it seems almost inevitable that they win this potentially most important state. Moreover, the specific advantages of a Walz candidacy are rather unclear. Although the Republicans have become stronger in his own state, the Democrats have not lost Minnesota since Richard Nixon’s landslide victory in 1972. Walz is therefore not needed to bring Minnesota to safety for the Democrats. In contrast, he may not be well known enough in the “Republican stronghold” with the other Midwest states of Wisconsin, Michigan and also in Pennsylvania.
Walz is undoubtedly an asset and a potentially powerful weapon for Harris.
In any case, Republicans will immediately begin to pick apart Walz’s record as governor. In 2020, for example, he was governor of Minnesota when George Floyd was killed and riots broke out in Minneapolis. Harris’ commitment to criminal justice reform and her brief sympathy for the protest movement – she tweeted her support for a bail fund for protesters in Minnesota – already gave the Trump camp plenty of scope for attack. There are other political decisions that could cause problems for Walz in the election campaign. Republicans are already attacking Harris for the migrants who are supposedly “flooding” the border and American cities. They could also attack Walz for issuing driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants. Such a practice is widespread in Democratic-run states, but is mostly viewed critically elsewhere. Trump supporters are also already criticizing Walz for granting former felons the right to vote. He is apparently “obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda nationwide,” they say. says Karoline Leavitta press secretary on the Trump campaign team. At the moment, the Democratic Party is on the rise. Harris is gaining in the polls; the base is enthusiastic about Walz’s nomination. The Democratic Party Convention at the end of August is expected to be a show, a celebration of unity and even euphoria – much like the Republican Party Convention in July was. After that, however, as with the Republicans, reality will set in again: a hard-fought, incredibly close election must be decided in just a few months. Walz is undoubtedly a reinforcement and a potentially powerful weapon for Harris. First and foremost, Walz strengthens Harris in a meaningful way – his nomination shows where Harris felt she was falling short as a political candidate.
This article originally appeared in the New York Times.
