Tim Walz, the Midwest nice guy primed to help Harris go after ‘weird’ Trump and Vance

Philadelphia: Republicans are gloating. They say Kamala Harris handed them a gift in picking Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate.

On the one hand, the two-term Minnesota governor brings a lot to the Democratic ticket. His backstory as a retired Army National Guardsman, a former high school teacher and a football coach is central casting for election candidates.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, at a campaign rally on Tuesday.Credit: AP

He spent 12 years in the US Congress, repeatedly winning a conservative rural district that had elected only one Democrat since 1892.

And he’s a genuinely nice guy, whose plain-speaking style went viral in recent weeks when he started referring to Donald Trump and his heir apparent, J.D. Vance, as weird – a description that has now become the catchcry of the Harris campaign.

On the other hand, Walz’s record of progressive policies – from protecting gender-affirming care and expanding voting rights for former prisoners to pushing for an end to coal-fired power plants – has given Republicans a predictable opening to brand the little-known governor as “dangerously liberal”, a “West Coast wannabe”, and part of “the most radical ticket in US history”.

“The reality is his progressive policies are going to cause a lot of Democrats to lose centrist voters,” said conservative firebrand Vivek Ramaswamy. “This is exactly the reset that Republicans needed.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, and Walz at the Philadelphia rally.Credit: AP

Whether this is wishful thinking is yet to be seen. There’s no doubt Walz was a dark horse who was selected by Harris over a shortlist of rising Democratic stars, from Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, to Arizona senator Mark Kelly and Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker.

But the frontrunner was Pennsylvania’s highly popular and moderate governor, Josh Shapiro, who many Republicans privately admitted was the potential running mate they feared most.

At 51, Shapiro is a standout within the Democratic Party, known for his ability to cut through and communicate well – so much so that Vance attempted to insult him last week by saying he “talks like Barack Obama”.

The former attorney-general was also considered someone who could appeal to centrist Democrats and independents in his home state, arguably the most important battleground Harris needs to win to make history on November 5.

But Shapiro also happens to be Jewish, and some progressives had warned that his pro-Israel stance and past condemnation of the campus protests that raged across America this year could have been problematic for Harris as she tries to differentiate herself from Biden on the issue of Gaza.

In the end, it was a chance that the famously risk-averse Harris may not have been willing to take, even if it exposed her to accusations of antisemitism seeping into her party.

“We are seeing it in the protests, in the rhetoric by the [Democratic] squad and members of Congress, and now in the VP pick,” said former Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley, a former UN ambassador. “They can’t talk this away as coincidence. It’s concerning.”

Harris-Walz merchandise reveals the campaign’s pitch to middle America.Credit: Kamala HQ

In picking Walz instead, Harris made a direct play to the Democratic base – and not just the electorate map – while betting that her new running mate’s small-town grit and straight-shooting style would appeal to working-class voters across the Midwest.

After all, she told a rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday night (US eastern time) that he’s the hunter who enacted common-sense gun reform in Minnesota; the teacher born in small-town Nebraska who signed up to be the faculty adviser of the first gay-straight alliance chapter at his school; the congressman who reached across the political aisle to get things done.

She’s also banking on the fact that Walz will not face the same kind of problems as J.D. Vance after his comments about America being run by miserable “childless cat ladies” drew widespread condemnation from the very female voters that Trump desperately needs to woo.

In an election race that is still anyone’s to lose, Harris hopes her VP pick can be an effective attack dog against an incendiary former president and his mini-me in the final stretch of this extraordinary campaign.

It was a job Walz passed with flying colours on Tuesday night as he derided Trump as a chaos agent, a convicted felon and a self-serving politician.

But there are still 91 days until election day, and as Harris acknowledged to the crowd: “We are the underdogs in this race … and I know exactly what we are up against.”

The crowd, however – some sporting new Harris-Walz merchandise, others holding up banners declaring “Kamala is the Future” – were energised and adamant: “We are not going back! We are not going back!”

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