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WASHINGTON, Aug 6 (Reuters) – Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Waltz as her running mate on Tuesday, choosing a progressive policy champion from the U.S. heartland and an outspoken orator to help her win over rural white voters.
Harris announced the selection via text message to supporters.
“I’m pleased to share that I have made my decision: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will join our campaign as my running mate,” she said. “Tim is a proven leader with an incredible record of doing things for Minnesota families. I know he will bring the same principled leadership to our campaign and to the office of Vice President.”
Waltz, a 60-year-old U.S. National Guard veteran and former teacher, said he was honored to run with Harris.
“I’m all for it,” Walz said on Twitter. “Vice President Harris shows us what’s possible in politics. It reminds me of the first day of school.”
Walz was elected to the Republican district in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006 and was elected governor of Minnesota in 2018 after serving for 12 years.
As governor, Walz pushed a progressive agenda that included free school meals, goals to combat climate change, tax cuts for the middle class and expanded paid leave for Minnesota workers.
He has long advocated for women’s reproductive rights but has also shown conservative leanings while representing a rural district in the U.S. House of Representatives, defending agricultural interests and supporting gun rights.
Harris, whose parents are immigrants from Jamaica and India, will usher in a popular Midwestern politician whose home state reliably votes Democratic in presidential elections but is close to two key battleground states, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Those states are critical in deciding the outcome of the Nov. 5 election, and Walz is widely seen as skilled at connecting with white rural voters who have generally voted for Republican Donald Trump, Harris’s White House rival, in recent years.
Harris chose Waltz over popular Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who was seen as instrumental in Harris’s win in a key battleground state.
Harris, 59, became the Democratic standard-bearer last month when 81-year-old President Joe Biden bowed to pressure from within his party and announced his withdrawal from the re-election race. Since then, she has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and reshaped the race against Trump with the help of Democratic supporters.
Harris is expected to appear at an event in Philadelphia on Tuesday night with Waltz. They will face Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, a military veteran also from the Midwest, in the November election.
The George Floyd Factor During Waltz’s Presidency
Waltz was governor when George Floyd, a black man, was killed in May 2020 by a white Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murder. The images of the white police officer kneeling on the African American man’s neck, causing his death, exposed deeper grievances and sparked protests over racial tensions in the United States and abroad.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, founder and chairman of the National Action Network, said Walz heard the calls for justice for Floyd and appointed the state attorney general to lead the prosecution of the case. The officer was convicted of murder and sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.
“I learned then that he was a man willing to listen and do the right thing for the people he represents,” Sharpton said in a statement. “We can count on Governor Walz to adopt the same open approach that we have with Vice President Kamala Harris.”
Trump campaign officials and surrogates quickly began trying to define Waltz as a hardcore leftist whose values were out of touch with most Americans.
They criticized his handling of the violent unrest in Minneapolis following Floyd’s death.
“It’s no surprise that San Francisco liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coaster Tim Waltz as her running mate — Waltz has sought to reshape Minnesota into the ‘Golden State’ during his time as governor,” the Trump campaign said in a statement, referring to Harris’ home state of California.
Waltz’s Attack
Waltz attacked Trump and Vance as “weird,” a catchy insult that was seized upon by the Harris campaign, social media and Democratic activists.
Waltz offered the nascent Harris movement a new attack slogan in a late July interview: “The people on the other side are weird: They want to take the books away. They want to get into your exam room,” referring to the book ban and women’s reproductive consultations with doctors.
Waltz also slammed Trump and Vance’s claims that they are middle class.
“They keep talking about the middle class. A robber baron real estate businessman and a venture capitalist trying to tell us they know who we are? They don’t know who we are,” Waltz said in an interview with MSNBC.
Harris needs to win back young voters, and this approach resonates with them. David Hogg, co-founder of the gun safety group March for Our Lives, called Harris a “great communicator.”
The Harris campaign is hoping Walz’s extensive National Guard career, successful stint as a high school football coach and his “Dad Joke” videos will appeal to rural voters who haven’t yet backed Trump for a second term in the White House.
Waltz was relatively unknown nationally before the Harris vice presidential race heated up, but his profile has since soared. A popular member of Congress, he reportedly has the support of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who played a major role in convincing Biden to drop out of the race.
Data from the Pew Research Center shows that in the 2016 election, Trump won 59% of the rural vote; although Trump lost the election, that number rose to 65% in 2020.
In the 2022 gubernatorial race, Walz won 52.27% of the vote to his Republican opponent’s 44.61%, even though large swaths of rural Minnesota voted for his opponent.
While Waltz has sided with Democratic orthodoxy on issues ranging from legalized abortion and same-sex marriage to the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, he has also amassed a centrist voting record during his congressional career.
He staunchly defended government support for farmers and veterans, as well as gun owners’ rights, and won praise from the National Rifle Association, according to the Almanac of American Politics.
He subsequently received a failing grade from the National Rifle Association for supporting gun control measures during his first run for governor.
Walz’s transition from a centrist representing a rural district in Congress to a more progressive politician as governor may have been in response to demands from voters in big cities like Minneapolis-St. Paul.
“He risks reinforcing some of the worst fears people have about Kamala Harris being a San Francisco liberal,” said Ryan Dawkins, a political science professor at Carleton College in Minnesota.
Waltz was ready to fight back.
“What a freak. Kids are fed so they can go to school, and women are making their own decisions about their own health care,” Waltz told CNN in July. “So if they want to label me that, I’m happy to take it.”
As Minnesota’s top executive, Walz mandated mask-wearing during the coronavirus pandemic and signed a law outlawing marital rape. He led Minnesota to several years of budget surpluses as he races for re-election in 2022.
During that campaign, Waltz claimed the support of several influential unions, including the AFL-CIO, firefighters, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), teachers, and others.
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