Donald Trump’s campaign and Republican lawmakers slammed Vice President Kamala Harris for selecting Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, calling him a “wannabe” West Coast liberal.
Democrats, however, hailed the pick as aligning the party’s urban and rural voters.
Reactions that poured in Tuesday described Walz, a National Guard veteran and former teacher and coach who represented a rural Minnesota district in the House for six terms, as a strong balance against Harris’ time as a prosecutor in San Francisco and California attorney general.
David Plouffe, a former top political adviser to Barack Obama who is a senior adviser to the Harris campaign, on Tuesday used the selection to continue casting Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, as too peculiar for the White House, posting on X: “I’ll also take a match-up any day of normal, mainstream and fun vs weird, extreme and angry.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., called the Minnesota chief executive “a superb choice.”
“Having served for years with Tim in the House of Representatives, I can say without reservation: there’s no better person Vice President Harris could have picked to run and then govern alongside her,” he said in a statement. “Tim has always put our country first — whether during his time in uniform, educating our children, or representing the great people of Minnesota in the House and as their Governor.”
Here’s a sampling of other reactions to the Walz pick:
Former colleagues see ‘regular guy’ or ‘empty suit’
Indiana Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican who is the favorite for an open Senate seat, said Walz, then the ranking member on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, didn’t vote for the so-called VA Mission Act because “Walz opposed giving our veterans better access to health care because he didn’t want to give President Trump a win.”
In a statement at the time, Walz said the bill did not have “a sustainable source of funding necessary to ensure that veterans’ access to quality healthcare … continue to be sufficiently funded, administered, and protected in the long term.”
“In addition to my concerns over the bill’s long term sustainability, without the qualified leadership in place to successfully implement this program, I am afraid we will waste precious resources and this program will end up like the current Veterans Choice Program, where veterans still wait to receive care and have difficulty navigating the program’s complex requirements,” he added.
Still, Walz’s military background could be a selling point. He served in the Nebraska National Guard, followed by the Minnesota National Guard. Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, served in the Marine Corps, meaning both parties’ VP picks have military background that the presidential nominees don’t have.
Sen. Christoper S. Murphy, D-Conn., noted that he and Walz were first sworn into the House in 2007 and said “the down-to-earth, compassionate, regular guy you see on TV is exactly who he is in person.”
But Rep. Tom Emmer, the head of the National Republican Congressional Committee and a fellow Minnesotan, said Walz “embodies the same disastrous economic, open-borders, and soft-on-crime policies Harris has inflicted on our country the last four years.
“Walz is an empty suit who has worked to turn Minnesota into Harris’ home state of California, and solidifies this ticket’s full embrace of a radical, America-last agenda,” he said.
Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who was in the House with Walz and is up for reelection this year, said she was “glad to see our party focusing on our region.”
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III, who opted not to seek reelection this year and left the Democratic Party to become an independent, said “his friend” Walz would “bring normality back to the most chaotic political environment that most of us have ever seen.”
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, who also served in the House with Walz, touted Walz’s gubernatorial record, highlighting a state law meant to give free breakfast and lunch to all students and another creating a program to provide paid family and medical leave for state workers beginning in 2026.
“We have worked alongside one another for almost 20 years, so I can say with confidence that there is no better choice for Vice President of the United States of America,” Ellison said in a statement.
Praise for branding Trump-Vance ‘weird’
Core groups from across the Democratic spectrum found things to like in Walz.
Stephanie Taylor, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, called him an “effortless populist” and said that by picking him, Harris “defied the corporate consulting class and indicated she will double down on the popular, pro-consumer, pro-worker agenda.”
Santiago Mayer, executive director of the Gen-Z-led Voters of Tomorrow, cited Walz’s support for tuition-free college and universal school meals.
“Governor Walz gets bonus points for articulating exactly how young Americans feel about Donald Trump and JD Vance: They are weird,” Mayer said.
John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, praised Walz for signing “a sweeping package of gun safety bills into law just last year” that included prohibiting automatic weapon modification devices and to collect gun crime data.
“Everytown will go all out to help Vice President Harris and Governor Walz defeat Trump and Vance, whose ‘guns everywhere’ agenda is a dream come true for extremists and criminals,” Feinblatt said in a statement.
Teachers unions applauded having a former high school social studies teacher on the ticket. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, another finalist considered by Harris, had drawn the ire of the unions for his past support of private school choice.
“Educators are fired up and united to get out and elect the Harris-Walz ticket,” said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest labor union, with about 3 million members. “We know we can count on a continued and real partnership to expand access to free school meals for students, invest in student mental health, ensure no educator has to carry the weight of crushing student debt, and do everything possible to keep our communities and schools safe.”
Walz as a football coach in 1999 “sponsored the school’s first gay straight alliance student group,” according to a statement from Human Rights Campaign. He also co-sponsored legislation in Congress to repeal the law that defined marriage as only between a man and a woman, and he voted to overturn the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. As governor he signed an executive order banning “conversion therapy.”
“Kamala Harris has electrified the nation and breathed new hope into the race,” said Kelly Robinson, the campaign’s president.
Environmental ‘evolution’ seen
While Walz was one of a few dozen Democrats to vote more than a decade ago to support construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, a project that President Joe Biden canceled after taking office, environmental groups praised Harris’ choice.
“Governor Walz’s evolution into a climate champion, sparked by witnessing the impacts of extreme weather on his rural constituents, reflects a growing understanding of climate change as an immediate and devastating threat to communities across America,” Cassidy DiPaola, communications director at Fossil Free Media, said in a statement. “His ability to connect climate policy to the everyday concerns of Midwestern and rural voters could prove invaluable in building broader support for climate action.”
Manish Bapna, president and CEO of NRDC Action Fund, said Walz made Minnesota “a national climate leader.”
“Under his leadership, the North Star State committed to 100 percent clean energy by 2040 and became the first Midwestern state to adopt California’s tailpipe emissions standards,” Bapna said in a statement.
Trumpworld sees ‘dangerously liberal agenda’
The Trump campaign almost immediately tried to link Harris and Walz as ideological soulmates, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying in a statement, “San Francisco Liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coast wannabe Tim Walz as her running-mate — Walz has spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State.
“From proposing his own carbon-free agenda, to suggesting stricter emission standards for gas-powered cars, and embracing policies to allow convicted felons to vote, Walz is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide,” Leavitt added. “If Walz won’t tell voters the truth, we will: just like Kamala Harris, Tim Walz is a dangerously liberal extremist, and the Harris-Walz California dream is every American’s nightmare.”
Trump, who has no campaign rallies scheduled until Friday, had not responded to Harris’ pick on social media.
“The Squad is so happy !” was the reaction from Chris LaCivita, Trump’s campaign manager, on X, formerly Twitter. He wrote the message in a quote response to a post congratulating Walz from Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., that included a picture of Omar and Walz together, smiling. Omar is among a group of young House progressives known collectively as “the squad.”
Former Trump GOP primary rival Ron DeSantis, Florida’s governor, who spoke at the former president’s national convention coronation last month, called the Harris-Walz pairing the “most left-wing ticket in American history.”
“Minnesota was ground zero for the BLM riots of 2020,” he wrote in an X post, referring to the sometimes-violent Black Lives Matter protests that year. “Harris egged it on and Walz sat by and let Minneapolis burn.”
Another 2024 primary foe-turned-gushing-convention-speaker, former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, also blasted Walz on X: “Democrats doubling down on the Progressive movement. Waltz is a win for open borders, socialism, and Iran.”
Hope for ‘evolution’ on Israel-Gaza conflict
Shapiro had been more critical of pro-Palestinian protesters earlier this year than some other elected Democrats were. That could have hindered Shapiro, who is Jewish, when it came to the veepstakes.
A spokesman for the NRCC, Will Reinert, said Harris not picking Shapiro meant she “caved to Antisemites in the Democrat Party.”
“San Francisco liberal Kamala Harris’ ideological comfort zone remains at the very far left fringes of her party; by snubbing Pro-Israel Shapiro it’s the clearest sign yet that 2024 Kamala is the same as the 2019 primary Kamala,” Reinert said.
Arab American voters had been angry with Biden since the early days of Israel’s war in Gaza, which was prompted by Hamas’ invasion of the Jewish state on Oct. 7. Fueled by the “Uncommitted” movement, about 650,000 Democrats voted against the sitting commander in chief in state primaries.
But one senior member of the Uncommitted movement on Tuesday said in a statement that Walz “has demonstrated a remarkable ability to evolve as a public leader, uniting Democrats’ diverse coalition to achieve significant milestones for Minnesota families of all backgrounds.
“While his past positions as a congressman may have conflicted with anti-war voters, we hope he can evolve on this issue as he has on others, such as shifting from an A to F rating from the NRA,” said Elianne Farhat, Uncommitted senior adviser and executive director of Take Action Minnesota. She also made clear that the group would be watching the ticket closely, adding of Walz: “It’s crucial he continues this evolution by supporting an arms embargo on Israel’s war and occupation against Palestinians in an effort to unite our party to defeat authoritarianism in the fall.”
Harris, following a recent one-on-one meeting in Washington with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, sounded a more critical tone about the conduct of his war with Hamas, but the vice president has not endorsed an embargo. In fact, she said after that meeting that the administration would continue supporting Israel’s right to defend itself.
Still, Harris’ pick did win praise from pro-Israel groups as well.
Democratic Majority for Israel President Mark Mellman called Walz “a proud pro-Israel Democrat with a strong record of supporting the U.S.-Israel relationship.” Mellman cited Walz traveling to Israel when he was in the House and meeting with Netanyahu, as well as supporting resolutions “that helped to strengthen the U.S.-Israel alliance.”
Rural voters not ‘deplorables’
The selection of Walz could help Democrats win over rural voters, said Daniel Shea, a professor at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, and the co-author of “The Rural Voter: The Politics of Place and the Disuniting of America.”
“I’ve heard him recently talk about how rural voters aren’t crazy, that rural voters have genuine concerns, that the Democrats can’t simply write them off as racist, misogynist, xenophobic,” he said. “He’s talked at length about how you can’t simply paint all rural Americans with a broad brush. They’re not all deplorables.”
Walz’s profile as a hunter and former football coach who graduated from a state university and served in the military will appeal to rural Americans, Shea said.
“In the rare instances where Democrats do well in rural areas, it’s because the voters see a genuine authenticity,” Shea said. “He knows these people, and I think that was part of Harris’ calculation.”
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