Kamala Harris picks Minnesota governor as her running mate

After securing the Democratic Party’s nomination to run in the United States presidential election, presidential candidate Kamala Harris has decided that her running mate will be Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. The choice was announced by US newspapers and news agencies on Tuesday (6) and on the current vice president’s social media.

In the message she expressed pride in the announcement and said: “As governor, coach, teacher and veteran, he [Walz] made a difference for working families like his. It’s great to have him on the team.”

I am proud to announce that I’ve asked @Tim_Walz to be my running mate.

As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he’s delivered for working families like his.

It’s great to have him on the team.

Now let’s get to work. Join us:https://t.co/W4AE2WlMTj

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 6, 2024

The plan behind this strategic nomination is to gain more support in the Midwest region. Although the state of Minnesota has been Democratic for decades, other neighboring states such as Wisconsin and Michigan are essential to winning the election, since they are considered swing states, that is, they alternate in preference between Democrats and Republicans in each contest.

Read more: Kamala is ahead of Trump, according to poll aggregator

Walz, 60, served 12 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is serving his second term as governor and has had a career as a public school teacher and a military officer in the National Guard.

In addition to representing a regional force to attract support, the governor has appeal among rural voters, as he represented an agricultural district during his terms as a congressman, as well as among military personnel, whose rights he defended. Thus, Harris has chosen a running mate with connections in sectors considered conservative, which are essentially the base of his rival, Donald Trump. The expectation is that the choice will help to attract back working-class voters who moved away from the Democrats in the last elections and supported Trump in 2016.

Despite Walz’s tendencies, he should do more to attract undecided voters than to “steal” votes from Trump. The governor has a solid Democratic background with programs aimed at expanding access to health care, union organizations and even passed a law that guaranteed the right to abortion in the state he leads.

Trump’s campaign was betting that Kamala would choose Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro – the leader in a swing state that is crucial to the election. With that, the Republican team aimed its artillery efforts at him, but in a very short time, they were already working to discredit and attack Walz and to paint him as a radical and anti-Semitic politician, in the best Trump method of creating fake news and invent situations for their supporters.