PHILADELPHIA — Democratic Gov. Tim Walz is not a household name outside his home state of Minnesota.
So in the hours after Vice President Kamala Harris named the longtime former congressman and two-term governor as her running mate on the Democratic Party’s 2024 ticket, Harris’ campaign immediately began working to showcase Walz.
His bio was shared on social media platforms including Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter, and Harris' campaign highlighted the governor in a new video.
And the vice president and Walz will kick off an intense campaign Tuesday night in Pennsylvania's largest city in key states that will likely determine the outcome of their 2024 election showdown against former President Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio.
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS NAMES MINNESOTA GOVERNOR TIM WALZ AS HER BALLOT MATE
The scoreboard at the Liacouras Center, the site of Vice President Kamala Harris' first rally with her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on August 6, 2024. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
The introduction to Walz is necessary, as seven in 10 Americans didn't know enough about the governor to form an opinion, according to a new Marist College poll for NPR and PBS NewsHour.
As she boarded Air Force Two on her way to Philadelphia, Harris touted that Walz “will be a great vice president” when asked why she had chosen him over other vice presidential front-runners: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly. Shapiro was expected to address the crowd at the rally.
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Harris' campaign touted Tuesday afternoon that they had raised more than $10 million from grassroots supporters in the hours after the vice president announced her running mate, making it “one of the campaign's best fundraising days this cycle.”
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speaks to reporters at the White House after joining other Democratic governors in meeting with President Biden, July 3, 2024. (Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz)
The name of Walz, 60, was not a surprise, as it was immediately thought that his name would be in contention in the 16 days since Harris succeeded President Biden as the party's standard-bearer.
Walz, a former high school teacher and coach who spent nearly a quarter-century in the National Guard, was elected to the House of Representatives in 2006 and re-elected five times. He represented Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District, a largely rural district encompassing the southern part of the state.
Having the outspoken Walz on the national ticket not only helps Harris in Minnesota — a blue-leaning state in presidential elections that the Trump campaign has been trying to flip this year — but also benefits the vice president in the two neighboring Midwestern battlegrounds of Wisconsin and Michigan.
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The governor will also be able to showcase a number of progressive policy victories in Minnesota, including protecting abortion rights, legalizing recreational marijuana and restricting gun access to prevent street shootings. And the appointment of Walz over more moderate Democrats like Shapiro and Kelly will please the party's progressive wing.
“As a governor, coach, teacher and veteran, he has worked for working families like yours,” Harris said in announcing her selection.
Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris waves as she boards Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrew in Maryland on August 6, 2024. Harris attends a campaign event in Philadelphia after introducing Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / POOL / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Harris said “one of the things that struck me about Tim is how deeply he feels about fighting for middle-class families.”
“It's personal,” she said. “He grew up in a small town in Nebraska, spending summers working on his family's farm. His father died of cancer when he was 19, and his family relied on Social Security survivor benefit checks to make ends meet. At 17, he enlisted in the National Guard, where he served for 24 years. He used his GI Bill benefits to go to college and become a teacher.”
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It was a very different stance from that of the Trump campaign, which immediately targeted Walz.
“Kamala Harris just doubled down on her radical vision for America by choosing another left-wing extremist as her vice presidential nominee,” the moderator charged in a new Trump campaign video. “Tim Walz will be the seal of approval for Kamala's dangerous liberal agenda.”
Republican running mate Sen. JD Vance criticizes Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz at a Trump campaign event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 10. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
And Vance, in Philadelphia hours before the Democratic nomination came in, called Walz's record as governor “a joke” and said he was “one of the most left-wing radicals in all of American government at any level.”
Vance is following Harris and Walz with smaller-scale events this week as they hold rallies in key states.
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