Why Kamala Harris just hit a home run by picking Tim Walz as her running mate

| 1:48 pm EDT August 6, 2024
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I’ve said all along that Kamala Harris’ choice of running mate wouldn’t make a huge difference, because every name on the short list would have been a smart pick. I also said that I wasn’t qualified to have an opinion on whom she should pick, because I don’t have access to the kind of detailed internal polling that she does. That said, seeing the initial reaction to Harris’ choice of Tim Walz, this looks like a home run.

Harris has managed to pick someone who is garnering instant excitement from liberals, because some of his most noteworthy initiatives in Minnesota have been progressive, and instant excitement from moderates because he’s a down-home midwestern military veteran. In fact the only person who seems to hate the pick is Donald Trump, which is telling.

As for the popular notion that picking Josh Shapiro would have won her Pennsylvania, or that picking Andy Beshear would have won her Georgia, again, we don’t know that this is what the Democratic Party’s internal polling and demographic data even says. For all we know, the data may have said that it’s Walz who delivers her those states.

Or Kamala Harris may have simply chosen Tim Walz because she felt he was the best person to be her Vice President. If so, then good for her. In any case, like I said at the top, anyone on the short list would have been a winner. But the positive initial reaction to Tim Walz suggests that it’s not just a winner, but a home run. Harris-Walz. Now let’s go win this.