US Vice-President Kamala Harris has picked Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota to be her running mate in the US presidential election, Associated Press and other US media outlets reported on Tuesday, settling the top of the Democratic ticket just two weeks before the party’s national convention.
Walz, in his second term as governor of the midwestern state of Minnesota, has been a teacher, high school football coach, member of Congress, and a high-ranking member of the National Guard, a background that fits more comfortably with American conservatives.
Walz, 60, recently called Vance and his allies “weird,” a descriptor that Harris and other party leaders have also used effectively to vilify some of the Republican vice-presidential nominee’s positions, including Vance’s opposition to abortion and his dismissive assessment of “childless cat ladies” who were prominent in Democratic circles.
Since one job a vice-presidential candidate has traditionally held in US politics is to be a sharp critic of the opposing ticket, his effectiveness during interviews on cable news shows helped bring him to the Harris campaign’s attention.
Harris, who last week secured enough votes from Democratic delegates to become the party’s presidential nominee, will face Republican nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, who have struggled to respond to strong support for Harris since President Joe Biden announced last month that he was withdrawing from the campaign and threw his support behind his vice-president.
Harris is the first woman of colour at the top of a major party’s ticket, a possible liability in the Democratic Party’s efforts to win over conservative voters, and a key reason that she had been expected to choose a white man as her running mate.
Republicans have also labelled Harris a “California liberal”, giving her more reason to choose someone from a Republican-leaning or swing state to join her.
It remains to be seen whether Walz gives Harris more momentum in polls, which have shown her roughly even with Trump, and in some cases slightly ahead. Trump’s pick of Vance has been widely seen as dragging the former president’s standing in the polls, giving rise to talk that he may switch to another running mate.