Inside the GOP’s Playbook Against Tim Walz

Even before Kamala Harris picked her running mate, Republicans had a simple plan of attack for whomever she chose: Tie them to Harris’ policies.

Then Harris picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz — and Republicans smiled.

“This is the ‘Dumb and Dumber’ ticket,” House Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota told NOTUS on Tuesday. “He’s not good, and he’s totally incompetent. Under his leadership, taxes have skyrocketed, Minnesota violent crime is at record highs and Minnesota’s families are worse off than they were before he started. So this is consistent with Kamala Harris.”

Emmer is familiar with Walz — they’re both from Minnesota — and he’s familiar with how Republicans can effectively attack Democrats. (He was the chairman of the House GOP’s campaign arm the last two election cycles.) Emmer said Harris picking Walz sets up the perfect contrast for Republicans: “America First versus the Democrats’ America Last agenda.”

Since Walz’s elevation, GOP officials have launched some generic and expected attacks: He’d be bad on the border, bad on the economy and a lackey for Harris’ far-left agenda. One GOP fundraising text actually called Walz “even worse” than Harris.

But Republicans were also preparing messaging that’s unique to Walz — and, they claim, they’re just as ecstatic as Democrats that Harris chose him; they think Walz is particularly susceptible to their attacks.

For one, his time as governor is filled with progressive legislative wins but also civil disorder in a major city. For another, they say they’re relieved Harris didn’t select Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who they believe could have directly helped her in a state that’s about as close to a must-win for Democrats as any other.

But it’s that record as governor in Minnesota — where he protected transgender rights and granted driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants — that Republicans think presents them with some special opportunities.

In a statement on Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson seized on the driver’s license issue to say Walz wants “to give driver’s licenses to the millions of illegal aliens Kamala Harris has allowed into our country.”

But perhaps the biggest opportunity Republicans see is Walz’s decisions after George Floyd’s murder in 2020. For days, Minneapolis was the picture of national chaos as fires raged within the city. Expect that to be a consistent line of attack. In fact, it already is.

The Trump campaign quickly sent out a pyro-evoking fundraising text on Tuesday after Walz was named as Harris’ pick: “One thing’s for sure: Harris-Walz will burn our country to the ground,” the text said.

Trump’s vice presidential choice, JD Vance, used a similar attack on Tuesday, telling reporters that Harris and Walz “make an interesting tag team because, of course, Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020.”

“And then the few who got caught, Kamala Harris helped bail them out of jail,” Vance said.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, never one for subtlety, jumped on the Minneapolis riots to post on X that Walz “sat back while the rioters that Kamala would bail out burned down a city.”

Democrats wanted a vice presidential pick who would be relatable to voters and who could balance out Harris’ more progressive record. While Democrats were elated with Harris choosing Walz, Republicans told NOTUS they think it’ll be easier to link Harris’ policies to the Minnesota governor than it would have been if she chose another candidate.

“He’s basically a carbon copy policy-wise of Kamala Harris,” GOP strategist Ford O’Connell said.

O’Connell also told NOTUS that Walz will be attacked for his soft positions on China and some of his past comments about socialism.

During the “White Dudes for Harris” virtual fundraiser, Walz said Democrats shouldn’t “shy away from our progressive values.”

“One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness,” he said. The RNC Research account posted the clip on X soon after Walz was confirmed as Harris’ pick. The clip had almost 3 million views by Tuesday night.

Politically, O’Connell added, the selection mirrored Trump’s pick of JD Vance: a white man from the Midwest, designed to appeal to rural Rust Belt voters who may decide the election.

But Walz’s policy alignment with Harris doesn’t exactly broaden her appeal to those voters, another GOP strategist told NOTUS. This strategist said the argument against the ticket remains simple: point to unpopular policies while emphasizing the high cost of living under Biden and Harris.

Claims of extreme liberal policies against Shapiro — a pro-business, centrist Democrat who routinely won his state’s moderate and swing voters and supports school vouchers — would’ve left Republicans with little material, Republicans said.

And it’s why many establishment Democrats said they preferred Shapiro: a candidate who could provide some of President Joe Biden’s blue-collar vibes to Harris’ very online-driven campaign.

“Instead of picking the candidate with charisma and a moderate record, Kamala caved to the Hamas caucus and picked a charisma black hole with a long record of supporting extreme liberal policies and a history of being close to China,” a source close to the Trump campaign told NOTUS. “Walz is Tim Kaine all over again, he adds nothing to the ticket.”

Part of the Trump campaign and GOP’s playbook on Walz seemed to be trying to drive division in the Democratic Party — and Harris snubbing Shapiro seemed to be a central part of that.

“Kamala Harris did not pick Josh Shapiro because antisemitic progressives did not like that he is Jewish,” said Mike Berg, communications director for the Senate GOP’s campaign arm. “It was Harris’ first major decision as the nominee and she caved to the pro-Hamas contingency within the Democratic Party.”

Berg’s statement went on to say Walz “reinforces Kamala Harris’ biggest weaknesses: crime and immigration.”

Democrats, of course, saw it much differently.

“In picking Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, Vice President Harris has not only selected a veteran, a teacher, a football coach, and a public servant to be her governing partner, she has also cemented the fundamental contrast in this race between the Harris-Walz ticket which is fighting for working families and the Trump-Vance Project 2025 agenda that would unleash harm on Americans across the country,” Harris campaign spokesperson Michael Tyler said in a statement.

“Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz will spend the next 91 days crisscrossing the country on a message of opportunity, building up the middle class instead of cutting taxes for the rich, and fighting for our fundamental freedoms, including reproductive freedom,” he continued.

But again, Republicans were at least claiming Walz was the preferred option to the alternative. In the words of O’Connell: “Republicans dodged a bullet.”

“By picking Walz, it’s clear that Harris is far more concerned with locking down the progressive, antisemitic vote than winning over the independents who will decide this race,” O’Connell said.

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Ben T.N. Mause is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.

Reese Gorman is a reporter at NOTUS.