Kamala Harris taps Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for VP

Kamala Harris has picked Tim Walz as her Democratic vice presidential running mate as she seeks to build on a remarkable surge of enthusiasm in her run for a history-making White House win.

“Tim is a battle-tested leader with an incredible track record of getting things done for Minnesota families,” Harris said in a text message to supporters. “He will bring the same principled leadership to our campaign.”

The popular Minnesota governor could give Harris a critical edge across the battleground Rust Belt states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, which would be the easiest path for Democrats to reach 270 electoral votes.

Capping a frenetic selection process, Harris tapped Walz, a popular and progressive ex-high school football coach, as Democrats seek to ride a wave of enthusiasm after she replaced President Biden at the top of the ticket.The newly minted Democratic ticket will appear at a rally in Philadelphia later Tuesday ahead of a weeklong blitz of battleground states, including the Rust Belt states of Wisconsin and Michigan where Walz could help moderate and rural voters who have turned away from the party.

A folksy Midwest native with an edge, Walz famously coined the “weird” attack on Vance that has helped boost fundraising and polling numbers since Harris launched her campaign just two weeks ago.

Even though Minnesota isn’t considered a swing state in the presidential race, Walz has successfullycompeted for Republican and independent voters and has led an impressive transformation of Minnesota into a Democratic bastion in recent years.

Walz is very popular with liberals, but doesn’t appear to have any major enemies in the party, which could help Harris continue her remarkable consolidation of her support heading into the Democratic National Convention and into the fall campaign.

The Democratic tag team hopes to keep Harris surging in the polls, which show pulling roughly even with Trump since President Biden stepped down from the race last month and handed her the baton.

Walz won the nod over several other veepstakes finalists including Gov. Josh Shapiro, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

All of the short list candidates were white men from the Midwest or other battleground states, highlighting the perceived need to balance the ticket led by Harris, who is vying to become the first Black woman president.