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Snapshot: It's Tim Walz
Kamala Harris has chosen the very charming Minnesota governor who has quickly become a Democratic favorite
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Kamala Harris has selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. What a great choice.
“I am proud to announce that I’ve asked Tim Walz to be my running mate,” Harris said in a statement. “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.”
The charming Walz may be the most instantly likable politicians I’ve ever seen. If I thought this would be a joyful campaign before (and I described it here), you can certainly multiply that by two or even more. Walz has a remarkable ability to engage on serious ideas and policies and do it with humor. He’s down-to-earth, the guy next door, the neighbor you bump into in the hardware store and are glad you did. He’s the dad everyone wants and the high-school teacher everyone loves. A small-town Nebraska native, this is a candidate that will play well in rural America and across the Midwest. Tim Walz is not weird.
The Republicans will try to paint 60-year-old Walz as a crazy leftist radical. But that will fail. Yes, he’s the governor who didn’t immediately quell the riots that broke out after George Floyd’s murder and bring in the National Guard. Yes, he’s a progressive who supports and funds free breakfast and lunch for school kids. He has supported within Minnesota legalizing recreational marijuana, passing universal background checks for gun buyers, expanding LGBTQ protections and providing tuition-free college for low-income residents.
But as Walz, who had one of the most bipartisan records serving 12 years in Congress, put it: “What a monster. Kids are eating and having full bellies so they can learn. And women are making their own health care decisions. We’re a top-five business state and we also rank in the top three in happiness.”
And Walz—who is also a military veteran, an avid hunter and gun owner, a former social studies teacher who graduated high school in a class of 24—provides a vivid and uplifting counterpoint to Donald Trump and J.D. Vance.
Harris-Walz? It’s the charming vs the charmless and weird ticket. It’s compassion and decency vs cruelty and violence. It’s the pro-democracy American ticket vs the pro-autocracy, pro-Putin ticket.
There will be much more to say in the days ahead, but count me among those who are excited by Harris’ choice. There were other great candidates for the job (and I do think Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro attracted unfair criticism), but I am sure Tim Walz will help unify Democrats, sustain the momentum, provide an authentic contrast to the fake Vance, and articulate the values that he and Harris share in language that every American will understand.
Walz will make us smile and laugh. I can see why Harris wants him in the room when she’s making decisions. We will see them together for the first time later today in Philadelphia.
These next three months are going to be more enjoyable than I imagined possible.
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