WASHINGTON — US Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign said it has received over $10 million in grassroots donations since she announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday morning.
They campaigned for the first time together later on Tuesday in Philadelphia, kicking off a multi-day tour of battleground states aimed at introducing Walz to the national stage.
They are set to campaign in battleground states Wisconsin and Michigan that will offer an early test of his Midwestern credentials.
Harris chose a plain speaker from America’s heartland to help her take the fight to Republican rival Donald Trump.
Minnesota’s Democratic governor since 2018 and a U.S. Army National Guard veteran, Walz, 60, has been a schoolteacher, football coach, hunter and gun owner and has deep connections to rural American voters who in recent years have voted broadly for Trump – all of which are qualities that make Walz a good partner, said a source close to the selection process.
Harris, 59, became the Democratic standard-bearer after President Joe Biden, 81, ended his reelection campaign under party pressure last month. She has since raised hundreds of millions of dollars and recast the race against Trump with a boost of energy from her party’s base.
“Tim is a battle-tested leader who has an incredible track record of getting things done for Minnesota families,” Harris told supporters in a text. The source close to the selection process cited Walz’s executive experience as another plus.
Walz has pushed a progressive agenda that includes free school meals, goals for tackling climate change, tax cuts for the middle class and expanded paid leave for workers.
Trump campaign officials seized on the selection to paint Walz as a liberal like Harris whose values they say are out of touch with most Americans.
Walz was a relative unknown nationally until the Harris “veepstakes” heated up, but his profile has since surged. Harris chose him over popular Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro.
In the Nov. 5 U.S. election, they will face Trump, 78, and his running mate JD Vance, who is 40 and another military veteran from the Midwest.
Vance said he called Walz to congratulate him and left a voicemail. He also criticized the Democratic ticket’s approach to immigration, crime and energy when he spoke to reporters on his campaign plane.
Walz has faced criticism, notably from Republicans, over his handling of the protests that emerged after the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murder.
Images of a white police officer kneeling on the neck of an African American, who died, exposed deeper grievances and gave rise to protests over strained race relations in the U.S. and abroad.
Critics said Walz was too slow to mobilize the forces to stop the looting, arson and violence that accompanied the protests in Minneapolis. Walz and his team have said they dealt with the issues as best they could, including by deploying the National Guard.
Walz rose to prominence over the last week and a half, partly propelled by his use of “weird” to describe Trump and Vance, a catchy insult that was picked up by the Harris campaign, social media and Democratic activists.
His plain-spoken criticism seemed to resonate more with the public than the broad-brush remarks of Trump critics who portray the Republican presidential candidate as an existential threat to democratic institutions.
Walz has also assailed claims by Trump and Vance of having middle class credentials.
“They keep talking about the middle class. A robber baron real estate guy and a venture capitalist trying to tell us they understand who we are? They don’t know who we are,” Walz said in an MSNBC interview.
In Philadelphia, Harris and Walz campaigned for the first time together, kicking off a multi-day tour of battleground states aimed at introducing Walz to the national stage.
ATTACK DOG ROLE
In his remarks to a raucous crowd of more than 10,000 at Temple University, Walz described his upbringing in a small Nebraska town, his 24 years serving in the Army National Guard and his prior career as a high school social studies teacher and football coach.
“It was my students who encouraged me to run for office,” he said. “They saw in me what I was hoping to instill in them: a commitment of common good, a belief that one person can make a difference.”
He also went after Trump and Vance, an early demonstration of how Walz will approach the traditional “attack dog” role of the vice presidential candidate despite his affable, folksy style.
“He mocks our laws, he sows chaos and division, and that’s to say nothing of his record as president,” Walz said of Trump. “He froze in the face of the COVID crisis, he drove our economy into the ground, and make no mistake, violent crime was up under Donald Trump.
That’s not even counting the crimes he committed.”
Harris’ entry into the race after President Joe Biden abandoned his reelection bid just over two weeks ago has rapidly upended the election campaign, with polls showing she has erased the lead Trump had built.
Walz criticized Republicans for pursuing restrictions on women’s reproductive rights, an issue that has plagued Republicans since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 ended women’s constitutional right to abortion.
“Even if we wouldn’t make the same choice for ourselves, there’s a golden rule: mind your own damn business!” he said, drawing a huge ovation.
Harris, speaking before Walz, listed his titles – husband, father, teacher, coach, veteran, congressman, governor – before predicting he would earn a new one in the Nov. 5 election: vice president of the United States.
“He’s the kind of person who makes people feel like they belong and then inspires them to dream big,” she said.
Walz was elected to a Republican-leaning district in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006 and served 12 years before being elected governor of Minnesota in 2018 and again in 2022.
The selection of Walz adds geographic balance to a ticket with a Californian at the helm who needs a strong showing in the Midwest to win the Nov. 5 election. He has a record of appealing to the white, rural voters who have increasingly turned to Trump.
Democrats regard Wisconsin and Michigan as near must-wins in the 2024 election, and they have loomed large for the party since Hillary Clinton’s unexpected defeats there helped clinch Trump’s 2016 win.
Biden beat Trump in both states in 2020, but polls showed him facing a close battle in Michigan before he dropped out of the race last month, with much of the state’s significant Arab and Muslim American population fuming over his administration’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attacks.
