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On Tuesday, Vice-President Kamala Harris put an end to days of relentless speculation when she selected Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate. Reporting continues to emerge about how Harris came to her final decision. Here’s what we know so far:
Though political chatter suggested different benefits for Harris’s many vice-presidential contenders, the New York Times reports that polling and focus groups conducted by her vetting team found that she could win in November with either of her final three choices: Walz, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, and Arizona senator Mark Kelly. Per the Times, this allowed the vice-president to pick the person she connected with the best.
Harris and Walz also seem compatible when it comes to their choice of political messaging. In recent days, Harris’s campaign has echoed Walz’s popular cable-news-interview tactic of framing Republicans and their policies as “weird.” The strategy is reminiscent of one that Harris reportedly considered during her 2020 presidential run: CNN reported that Harris had discussed with aides what she would do if she debated Donald Trump and he proceeded to loom behind her like he famously did with Hillary Clinton. Harris said that she would’ve turned around and said, “Why are you being so weird?”
In the final hours of her deliberations, Harris was reportedly down to two final candidates, Walz and Shapiro. For many, Shapiro was a clear choice as the leader of a key swing state who was elected by a double-digit margin in 2022, albeit over an extremely unpopular Republican opponent in Doug Mastriano, and who has showed cross-party appeal in his other races as well. But Fox News reports that Harris’s team had concerns over Shapiro’s personal ambitions and whether he might ultimately attempt to upstage her. Shapiro’s aspirations were so well known in the state that Heather Heidelbaugh, his Republican opponent for state attorney general in 2020, released a campaign ad promising to serve her full term in the role, an obvious nod to Shapiro’s clear aims to be governor. He would go on to serve half of a four-year term as attorney general before mounting a successful gubernatorial bid in 2022.
Per Fox News, that concern was reportedly cemented after the release of a confusion-inducing promo video from Philadelphia mayor Cherelle Parker on Friday featuring city political leaders backing Harris while also pushing Shapiro as her potential running mate. The clip included footage from an earlier event attended by Shapiro, but the timing struck many as a potential leak of candidacy news rather than a public push for their preferred pick.
By many accounts, Walz and Harris appeared to mesh well. Bloomberg reports that a “strong personal rapport” between the two was a significant factor in her decision. A source told the Times that Harris seemed impressed with Walz following their meeting. “He’s just so open,” she reportedly said. “I really like him.”
According to Politico, Walz took the stance of a team player in his interviews with Harris and her team, indicating that he was nearing the end of his political career and that he would defer to the vice-president’s leadership. “And if I have to run through a brick wall, if I have to do the hard things,” Walz said, per the outlet’s sources, “I’m willing to do it because I’m not angling for anything else.”
Politico reports that Shapiro’s team felt that his meetings didn’t go as well. Per the report, Shapiro contacted Harris’s team on Sunday to express concerns about his leaving his role as governor to be the vice-presidential nominee, citing sources.
During his vetting interview, Shapiro also reportedly asked many questions about the role that the vice-president would play in a Harris administration, which, according to CNN, struck her team as “overly ambitious.”
Reuters cites Walz’s political strengths, like his history of success in a House district that Trump won as well as his work in Minnesota on issues important to Harris, such as paid leave and codifying Roe v. Wade. Walz defeated a Republican House incumbent in 2006 and was reelected five times, serving as the ranking member on the House Veterans Affairs Committee. During the running mate deliberations, Walz had the public support of many of his former congressional colleagues. The governor reportedly even had the private backing of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a source telling The Hill that the influential Democratic leader “is always especially fond of former House colleagues.” Notably, Walz was the only congressman in the running to join the ticket.
Walz’s biography as an Army National Guard veteran, public school teacher, and high-school football coach from the Midwest was seen as an asset to the ticket, acting as a contrast to Harris, who hails from left-wing San Francisco and has spent most of her career as a prosecutor.
