Just hours after the Minnesota Governor was announced as her Vice-Presidential pick, the two held their first joint campaign event on Temple’s campus.
After weeks of speculation as to who would be Kamala Harris’ running mate following the sudden announcement President Joe Biden would not run for reelection, the Democrats have their ticket. In a video of a phone call posted to social media this morning, Vice President Harris unveiled her running mate as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
As of last week, Walz was one of three names on the shortlist along with Arizona Senator Mark Kelly and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro – but as late as this weekend betting odds pointed towards Shapiro as the pick. A last-minute sit down between Harris and Walz Sunday changed things though, with Politico reporting that it came down to the fact that “she just really liked him.”
Walz is currently in his second term as Governor of Minnesota, a state in which Harris leads Trump by 8 points. He is a former high school social studies teacher, a football coach, an Army veteran, and a Congressman who flipped a Republican-leaning district in 2006. Analysts believe Harris is hoping his biography and midwestern roots will help the Democratic ticket appeal to the white working-class voters that have left the party in recent years.
In a video posted to X shortly after the Walz pick went public, the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee JD Vance discussed his background.
Vance also called out Walz at a rally earlier in the day, also in Philadelphia. The Republican raised concern about the Minnesota Governor’s response to the George Floyd riots of 2020, which Walz himself called an ‘abject failure’, his ‘radical’ positions on transgender issues including the signing of a bill that placed tampons in boys bathrooms in public schools, and for his stances on banning fracking and manufacturing.
“She selected Tim Walz, a guy who wants to ship more manufacturing jobs to China, who wants to give illegal aliens driver’s licenses, and who wants to make the fentanyl crisis so much worse because he refuses to do his job,” said Vance at the 2300 center in Philadelphia.
Walz joined Vice President Harris at Temple University’s Liacouras Center in South Philadelphia for their first official event. The 10,000-person arena was at capacity according to multiple reports on X, with hundreds of additional attendees in a separate overflow area where first gentleman Doug Emhoff was slated to speak.
Pennsylvania Governor Shapiro seemingly showed enthusiasm as he opened for the newly minted Democrat ticket. “I love being your governor,” said Shapiro before moving into his speech supporting Vice President Harris.
Kamala took the stage and tried to set the stakes for the election by labeling Trump and Vance as ‘dangerous’ to the future of the Country, and imploring the crowd that they had work to do.
“We need to level set; we are the underdogs in this race, but we have the momentum, and I know exactly what we are up against,” said Harris.
Walz spoke highly of Vice President Harris’ qualifications before segueing into how his midwestern upbringing and teaching experience qualified him for the role.
“These same values I learned on the family farm and tried to instill in my students, I took to Congress and the state capital, and now, Vice President Harris and I are running to take them to the White House,” said Walz.
Walz made sure to respond to his Republican Vice Presidential opponent JD Vance, hinting at an r-rated false attack made popular by online trolls.
Following the Philadelphia rally, Vice President Harris and Governor Walz are scheduled to hold campaign events in Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Detroit, Michigan; Durham, North Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Phoenix, Arizona; and Las Vegas this week.
