Democratic US presidential candidate Kamala Harris is entering the election campaign against former President Donald Trump with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. The duo is “ready to win,” Harris’ campaign team announced on Tuesday. Harris herself wrote on the online service X that it was “great” to have Walz on her team. US President Joe Biden praised the “great decision,” while the campaign team of Harris’ opponent Trump described Walz as a “dangerous left-liberal extremist.”
The 60-year-old Walz is considered a politician who, with his simple language, can reach voters without a university education, but at the same time represents liberal positions. The former National Guardsman, teacher and football coach represents liberal positions on abortion and cannabis. He also supports stricter screening of gun buyers.
Walz himself wrote on the online service X that he was extremely honored to be running alongside Harris. “I’m totally on board. It reminds me a bit of the first day of school,” he added. Harris said it was “great” to have the governor of Minnesota on her team. “As a governor, coach, teacher and veteran, he has successfully advocated for working-class families like his.”
Harris had previously received 99 percent of the votes in her party’s electronic vote for her official nomination as presidential candidate. The 59-year-old former prosecutor from the West Coast was the only candidate on the ballot for the five-day electronic vote among almost 4,000 delegates.
US President Joe Biden, who withdrew from the race for the White House on July 21, described Harris and Walz as “a strong voice for working people and America’s large middle class.” The first important decision that a party’s presidential candidate makes is the choice of vice president, the 81-year-old explained to X. “And Kamala Harris has made a great decision.”
Former Democratic US President Barack Obama also praised Vice President-elect Walz as an “outstanding governor” and an “even better vice president.”
In contrast, Trump’s campaign team called Walz a “dangerous left-wing extremist.” “If Walz doesn’t tell voters the truth, we will: Just like Kamala Harris, Tim Walz is a dangerous left-wing extremist,” said Trump’s campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt.
Although Walz’s home state of Minnesota in the Midwest of the USA is not one of the narrow circle of states that will decide the election, the governor could help the black presidential candidate Harris to reach a broader spectrum of voters in the region’s “swing states” such as Wisconsin and Michigan and thus win these states.
The 60-year-old recently caused a stir by describing the right-wing populist Republican presidential candidate Trump and his running mate JD Vance as “weird.” He is considered the inventor of this label, which has spread nationwide and which Harris has also frequently used for her rival since then.
Other possible vice presidential candidates for Harris included Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Senator Mark Kelly from Arizona. Shapiro called Walz an “extraordinarily strong complement” to presidential candidate Harris.
Harris wanted to start the campaign with her running mate on Tuesday evening in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After that, they will tour the particularly contested and decisive states for several days.
On Wednesday they will travel to Wisconsin and Michigan, Arizona on Friday and Nevada on Saturday. Appearances in the contested southeastern states of North Carolina and Georgia were also planned, but these were postponed due to tropical storm Debby. The duo’s nomination will then be officially celebrated at the big Democratic Party convention in Chicago in mid-August.
Harris is enjoying rising approval ratings, according to several polls: In a nationwide poll by the Morning Consult Institute, she was now four points ahead of Trump at 48 percent. However, a new poll by CBS News also found that Harris’ approval among black voters is lower than it was for US President Joe Biden when he defeated Trump in 2020. Some leading Democrats have therefore warned against complacency.
