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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
United States Vice President, Kamala Harris, has picked Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, as her running mate for the November 5 presidential election.
The selection, according to CNN, caps the midwestern Democrat’s short but swift ascent from a relative unknown to a leading driver of the party’s attacks on Donald Trump and the MAGA agenda.
Te medium reports that Harris had not formally called Walz to offer him the position.
A former educator, Walz is currently in his second term as Minnesota governor and chairs the Democratic Governors Association. He previously served 12 years in Congress, representing a conservative-leaning rural district that, both before and after his tenure, has been mostly dominated by Republicans.
In the build up to his selection as Harris’ running mate, Walz had first been an outspoken defender of President Joe Biden, following his disastrous debate performance as calls for the president to end his reelection bid escalated. When Biden dropped out, Walz endorsed Harris the next day and has since emerged as a reliable, energetic and cutting advocate for the presumptive Democratic nominee
Picking Walz showed Harris campaign’s focus on a path to victory that puts a premium on the “blue wall” states of the Midwest. Minnesota is slightly outside that sphere, but Walz, has evolved during his time in office into something of a progressive populist folk hero – the exact kind of pugilistic voice that Democrats taking on Trump are keen to highlight.
He has delivered a handful of memorable blows against Republicans in the last ome week. His most notable contribution has been a determination to label the GOP, especially its presidential candidate, Donald Trump, and his running mate, Sen JD Vance, Walz as “weird dudes,” before lighting into their political agenda.
The phrase has stuck, becoming a central meme in the new post-Biden version of the campaign, a development that is delighting Democrats and apparently frustrating many on the right.
During recent remarks at a “White Dudes for Harris” fundraiser, Walz made a rough-and-ready case for the vice president before would-be small-dollar donors.
“How often in 100 days do you get to change the trajectory of the world? How often in 100 days do you get to do something that’s going to impact generations to come?” And how often in the world do you make that bastard wake up afterwards and know that a Black woman kicked his a**, sent him on the road?”Walz asked.
The line was well received on the call and almost immediately grabbed headlines. For many Democrats, at least, the online virality – with apologies to Biden’s “Dark Brandon” meme – was the kind they have pined for over the past few years.
Walz also has a personal story that reonates with voters, Last month, he discussed his infertility troubles, with his wife of three decades, Gwen, which allows him to speak with some authority against opponents or skeptics of in vitro fertilization (IVF).
“My oldest daughter’s name is Hope. That’s because my wife and I spent seven years trying to get pregnant, needed fertility treatments, things like IVF – things (MAGA Republicans) would ban. These guys are the anti-freedoms,” he said.
Before being elected into Congress, Walz was a high school teacher and football coach and also served in the Army National Guard. Over more than a decade in Congress, he assembled a fairly centrist voting record. As a first-time campaigner, he opposed a ban on same-sex marriage and supported abortion rights. Once in Congress, he balanced that out with comparatively more conservative positions on gun rights, which resulted in scoring a National Rifle Association endorsement. Walz has since fallen out of favour with the gun lobby group over his support for gun safety actions as governor.
Walz ran for governor in 2018, emerging victorious by a double-digit margin. He won reelection in 2022 with 52 per cent of the vote. As governor, Walz had to grapple with divided government and slim majorities in the state legislature. But in 2022, the Democratic-Farmer-Labour Party (as the state’s Democratic Party is known) won control of both the state House and Senate.
When speculation began about who Harris would pick as a running mate, Walz started out as the darkest of dark horses. He did get support from a few members of Congress such as Minnesota Rep, Angie Craig, and Washington Rep, Pramila Jayapal, of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, as well as encouragement from labour unions.
In the end, Walz’s background as a governor experienced in working with Democrats and Republicans and his roots in rural Minnesota made him an appealing choice for Harris.
