Kamala Harris names Tim Walz as her vice-presidential running mate for 2024 US election
Kamala Harris has selected Tim Walz as her running mate. (AP Photo: Abbie Parr)
In short:
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a former school teacher and American football coach, will be Kamala Harris's running mate in the 2024 US election.
Announcing her decision, Ms Harris pointed to his record bringing in abortion protections and gun controls in his state, and described him as a fighter for middle-class families.
What's next?
Ms Harris and Mr Walz will spend most of the coming week campaigning in swing states.
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate in the 2024 US election.
Ms Harris confirmed the news on social media on Tuesday morning, local time.
"One of the things that stood out to me about Tim is how his convictions on fighting for middle-class families run deep. It's personal," Ms Harris wrote.
Mr Walz is seen as a plain-talking Midwesterner who can appeal to rural voters.
The former school teacher served 12 years in Congress before being elected governor in 2018.
He also served in the Army National Guard and coached American football.
He said it was an honour of a lifetime to run with Ms Harris.
"I'm all in," he wrote on X.
"Vice President Harris is showing us the politics of what's possible. It reminds me a bit of the first day of school."
The 60-year-old second-term governor's selection comes after days of intense speculation.
He recently gained national attention with his description of the Republican opposition as "weird", which has since become a favoured attack line of Democrats.
Earlier this week, Mr Walz told a local fundraising event:
"It wasn't a slur to call these guys weird. It was an observation."
The battle for the Midwest
The Harris campaign is working to boost support in the Midwest region of the US, where states like Michigan and Wisconsin helped Donald Trump win the presidency in 2016.
Trump's running mate, Ohio senator JD Vance, is also from the Midwest. Mr Vance said he'd left Mr Walz a congratulatory voicemail, but criticised his record on jobs and law and order.
"It is more instructive about what it says about Kamala Harris," Mr Vance told reporters aboard his campaign plane.
"That she doesn't care about the border, that she doesn't care about crime, she doesn't care about American energy and, more importantly, she doesn't care about the Americans that have been made to suffer under those policies."
Tim Walz has been Minnesota's governor since 2018. (AP: Abbie Parr)
The Trump campaign has criticised Mr Walz as a "radical leftist" and a "West Coast wannabe", a reference to the relatively progressive politics of states like California.
Mr Walz is joining Ms Harris following President Joe Biden's decision to end his re-election campaign.
The surprise move forced Ms Harris to unify Democrats and consider potential running mates during an exceedingly compressed time frame.
Meanwhile, Republicans have rallied around Trump, their presidential nominee, after his attempted assassination in July.
Ms Harris, the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to lead a major party ticket, initially considered nearly a dozen candidates before narrowing the list to a handful of serious contenders — all of whom were white men.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was seen as the other favoured contender. His state is considered one of the most critical battlegrounds in the race for the White House.
After Mr Walz was chosen, Mr Shapiro quickly offered his support, calling him "an exceptionally strong addition to the ticket who will help Kamala move our country forward".
Mr Vance accused Ms Harris of listening "to the Hamas wing of her own party" before choosing Mr Walz over Mr Shapiro, who is a devout Jew and regular visitor to Israel.
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