Kamala Harris picked the former schoolteacher and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. The move leans into the viral, digital appeal of the new Harris campaign and bucks the theory that Harris needed a key swing state politician on the ticket.
Harris video-called Walz Tuesday morning to ask him to be her running mate, and he accepted. Per a source close to the process, the Harris campaign was drawn to Walz’s executive experience and his connection to rural America. Harris and Walz also have a strong personal rapport, this person said.
Walz — an Army National Guard veteran, former geography teacher and football coach, and 12-year member of Congress — was elected governor in 2018. This background, as well as his identity as a hunter and gun owner, was appealing to the Harris camp.
In an announcement Tuesday, the Harris campaign emphasized Walz’ background, arguing that it could appeal to swing voters. Specifically, it flagged that he represented a conservative-leaning district in Congress, is a gun owner, accessed IVF to conceive his daughter and “funded Minnesota police departments, putting more cops on the street and investing in body cameras.”
“As governor, Walz lowered the cost of insulin to $35 per month for many Minnesotans. He eliminated junk fees. And, he signed paid leave into law so that parents can take care of sick family without losing their job,” the statement said. “Governor Walz has done more to help middle class families get ahead than any other statewide leader in recent memory.”
I am proud to announce that I've asked @Tim_Walz to be my running mate.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 6, 2024
As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he's delivered for working families like his.
It's great to have him on the team.
Now let’s get to work. Join us:https://t.co/W4AE2WlMTj
Other top contenders, including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, came from key battleground states President Joe Biden won in 2020, which are now central to the Harris campaign’s 2024 strategy.
Democrats have consistently won Minnesota in recent elections, though by margins tight enough that Republicans have pushed to make it competitive. As Democratic pollster Paul Maslin told NOTUS before the selection, “If Minnesota and Virginia come into play for [Republicans], that means they’re winning and they’re going to win.”
But Walz could give Harris a boost in other midwestern “Blue Wall” states that she’ll likely need to win in November. He served in a House district that Trump went on to win and could bolste appeal in must-win states in the Midwest.
He also highlights a distinctive strength of the Harris campaign: its meme-ability. Walz helped spur the “weird” accusation against Republicans into a viral phenomenon at the outset of the jockeying to join her on the ticket.
The day after Biden dropped out of the presidential race, the National Republican Senatorial Committee sent out a memo calling Harris “weird,” but their accusation didn’t stick in the political zeitgeist.
The following day, when Walz flipped the accusation around on Republicans, it caught on like wildfire. “I’m telling you: these guys are weird,” Walz wrote on X, linking to a clip of himself on MSNBC saying as much. “These are weird people on the other side. They want to take books away, they want to be in your exam room, that’s what it comes down to. Don’t get sugarcoating this, these are weird ideas.”
Walz is the current chair of the Democratic Governors Association and also brings deep relationships to Capitol Hill. In the week leading up to the nomination, numerous Democratic House colleagues, including former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, spoke highly of their longtime colleague as a potential vice president to reporters.
In 2022, when Minnesota Democrats won a legislative majority, a reelected Gov. Walz signed a massive sweep of legislation, including enshrining the right to an abortion in state law, legalizing recreational marijuana, implementing automatic voter registration and ensuring access to driver’s licenses regardless of immigration status.
Though Walz established himself as a moderate Democrat in Congress and in his race for governor, progressives have praised his working relationship with Minnesota’s liberal state Legislature. Sen. Bernie Sanders told Minnesota Public Radio that he was “very impressed” with Walz and that the governor “understands the needs of working families.”
Republicans have already been gearing up their messaging against Walz, taking aim at his handling of nationwide racial justice and anti-police brutality protests stemming out of Minneapolis after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. He called for a special legislative session and signed onto police reform legislation in the following months.
Trump’s campaign immediately sent out a fundraising email attacking Harris’ VP pick. The email said Walz would be the “WORST VP IN HISTORY!” and “unleash HELL ON EARTH.”
Late Monday evening, a Republican National Committee account took aim at his record on COVID-19 in a post on X, calling him a “sad, weak, pathetic little man.” When he was first floated as a possible vice presidential candidate, the RNC called him “too incompetent (and too busy cheering on the rioters) to call in the National Guard as Minneapolis was burning to the ground, so President Trump intervened.”
Trump, for his part, posted only “THANK YOU!” on Truth Social after Harris announced her pick.
Meanwhile, one of the last things Walz posted on X before the vice presidential news broke was a photo of his backyard, filled with turkeys. “For the past few years I’ve not seen a turkey while hunting. Today they mock me,” he wrote.
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Claire Heddles is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Jasmine Wright is a reporter at NOTUS.