Wednesday briefing: Everything you need to know about Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s running mate

Good morning. Kamala Harris has chosen her vice-presidential nominee – and her pick has prompted a new wave of excitement among progressive Democrats. Tim Walz, a former school teacher and veteran of the army national guard who has been the governor of Minnesota since 2016, was barely a figure on the national stage until a few weeks ago – but his folksy appeal and the success of his attacks on “weird” Republicans have thrust him to the top of the Democratic ticket.

Many thought that Harris would pick Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, in the hope of bolstering her chances in his crucial home state. But in Walz, Harris will hope she has a running mate who can take the fight to Donald Trump and JD Vance across the battleground states – and inspire the party faithful with what he calls the “politics of joy”.

For today’s newsletter, I spoke to Chris Michael, one of the Guardian’s US editors, about the thinking behind Harris’s pick – and whether it will really make any difference on election day. Here are the headlines.

Five big stories

1. UK news | Keir Starmer pledged that communities would “be safe” after convening the government’s emergency Cobra committee on Tuesday to coordinate the response to ongoing unrest. Police forces were preparing for a potentially busier day on Wednesday as they monitor reports of at least 30 possible gatherings.

2. Middle East | Hamas has named Yahya Sinwar as the new head of its political bureau, elevating the hardline militant after the assassination in Tehran of its previous political leader, Ismail Haniyeh. Vladimir Putin has reportedly told Iran to avoid civilian casualties as the world anticipates a retaliatory attack on Israel.

3. Israel-Gaza war | British civil servants appear to have suspended the processing of arms export licences for sales to Israel pending the completion of a wider government review into the issue.

4. Bangladesh | Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus will head Bangladesh’s interim government after longtime prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country amid a mass uprising that left hundreds of people dead. A longtime political opponent of Hasina, Yunus is expected to return soon from Paris, where he is advising Olympic organisers.

5. Environment | Almost 500 different chemicals, some of which are banned, have been found in various mixtures across all 171 river and groundwater catchments tested in England in 2024, according to data from the Environment Agency, analysed by the Guardian and Watershed Investigations.

In depth: ‘He has a kind of jovial, plainspoken folksiness while still being very articulate’

Don’t worry if you haven’t heard of Tim Walz: neither have most Americans. An NPR/PBS/Marist poll published yesterday found that 71% of voters didn’t know who he is. Until a few weeks ago, he had barely broken through in the national political discourse. But as a surrogate for the Harris campaign during a Donald Trump campaign swing through his home state of Minnesota, he captured national attention with his forceful attacks on the former president – and his straightforward refrain went viral: “These guys are just weird.”

There are questions over whether Walz will be Harris’ most effective possible advocate in the swing states that will decide the election. But there is little doubt that Democrats are excited. “Progressives like him,” Chris Michael said. “He maintains the unity and the enthusiasm around the Harris campaign. They are going to believe they can ride ‘weird’ all the way to the White House.”

Who is Tim Walz?

Walz has the kind of biography that American political dreams are made of. Born and raised in rural Nebraska, he was a school teacher and football coach when he decided to enter politics in 2006, winning an upset victory in a Republican-held congressional seat with a campaign largely staffed by his former students. He served in the army national guard for 24 years, and he is a gun owner who shifted firmly to the left on gun control during his political career. In the cold calculus of American politics, it probably also helps that he is a white man.

At a raucous rally introducing him to voters in Pennsylvania last night, Kamala Harris ran through those elements of his biography, referring to him as Coach Walz and noting that he was voted most inspiring teacher in his students’ yearbook and acted as faculty advisor to the school’s gay-straight alliance.

Walz, for his part, was extremely sunny: thanking Harris for “bringing back the joy”, chucking in a risque joke about JD Vance’s alleged interest in couches (look it up if you dare), and declaring: “We’ve got 91 days. My God, that’s easy. We’ll sleep when we’re dead.” Helen Sullivan has five key takeaways from the event.

He won the Minnesota governorship in 2018, and again in 2022. While his overall record is ultimately more moderate than progressive enthusiasm for his candidacy might suggest, he used his success to legislate on a series of major Democratic priorities: abortion protections, gun control, universal school meals, and the legalisation of marijuana. “Minnesota is showing the country you don’t win elections to bank political capital,” he said in 2023. “You win elections to burn political capital and improve lives.” For more on his backstory and political career, see Rachel Leingang’s excellent profile.

Underpinning Walz’s success is his ability to marry his politics to a smalltown regular-dad vibe that helps ward off any Republican claims of extremism. (It’s hard to watch this video of him teasing his daughter about her vegetarianism and being tricked into going on an intense theme park ride, for example, and come away believing that he’s a radical socialist threat to the fabric of America.)

“He has a kind of jovial, plainspoken folksiness while still being very articulate,” Chris said. “He’s been quite practical in the way he thinks about policies that make people’s lives better.”

Why is the ‘weird’ thing important?

Like all of the most effective political catchphrases, Walz’s attack line, which has been picked up by many other Democrats, is simple enough – but it has a disarming, lighthearted quality. It highlights the extremity of the Trump-Vance agenda without deploying the warnings about the threat to the future of democracy that are credible enough, but may be too abstract or grandiose to connect with swing voters.

One effective variation, for example, has been to ask people if they can imagine Trump “coming home after a day of work and picking up a Frisbee and throwing it. And his dog catches it, and the dog runs over, and he gives him a good belly rub because he’s a good boy.”

“The Democrats have been searching for a way to take that message out in a simple, clear way that isn’t full of fear and doubt,” Chris said. “It’s an effective way to talk about politics in the way voters talk about it themselves.”

How will the Republicans attack him?

The initial attacks on Walz yesterday were predictable enough – the Trump campaign called him a “dangerously liberal extremist”, and the Republican House majority whip, Tom Emmer, called him an “empty suit”.

“They are calling him a radical leftist, as well as an extremely boring choice,” Chris said. US media reports suggest that the main plan is to focus on the idea of him as “dangerously liberal”, just as Trump says Harris is.

One possible risk of Walz’s “weird’ line is that it can be painted as akin to Hillary Clinton’s infamous reference to Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables” – an insult to the voters who are considering supporting the Republican ticket.

“He has been asked about that, and said that he’s not talking about the voters, he’s talking about the candidates,” Chris said. “They will probably tar him with the snobbish elite coastal liberal label. But it’s hard to do that when you hear him talk – it’s not obvious that it works with him in the way it did with Clinton.”

Who else came close?

In her final interviews over the weekend, Harris also met with the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, and the Arizona senator Mark Kelly, with Shapiro thought to have been the other finalist alongside Walz. “The case for Shapiro was that he could make the biggest difference in winning Pennsylvania, which is a crucial state for Harris,” Chris said. “He was probably the choice of most Democratic consultants.”

But Shapiro has been the subject of controversy over his stance on Israel: while he has been highly critical of Benjamin Netanyahu, he has supported Israel’s right to self-defence and alleged antisemitism among anti-Israel protesters, comparing some to the Ku Klux Klan. That has led to a groundswell of opposition among progressive voters, but also arguments that he is the focus of particular criticism because he is Jewish.

In any case, Harris appears to have decided that the advantages he confers in Pennsylvania are not significant enough to outweigh Walz’s personal appeal, and his ability to shore up party unity.

“The other thing about Shapiro is that he is perceived as being highly ambitious, and that that can be destabilising for a presidential ticket,” Chris added. “Walz doesn’t have presidential ambition written all over him – some people say Shapiro does.” This New York Times story reports that whereas Shapiro asked about what responsibilities he would hold as vice-president, Harris saw Walz as willing to do whatever he could for the team: “He’s just so open,” one source reported Harris as saying. “I really like him.”

Does his selection matter?

The historical evidence is that vice-presidential picks don’t make much positive difference to the final outcome – but they can certainly hurt, as John McCain discovered with Sarah Palin, and as Donald Trump appears to be finding with JD Vance and his eccentric history of remarks about the dangers of “childless cat ladies” in politics.

“It’s been decades since a vice-presidential nominee has guaranteed their home state or given you a big bump,” Chris said. “But the first rule of the choice is, do no harm. It looks like Walz will do no harm.”

With Harris improving in the polls, and drawing level with Trump according to some pollsters, the vice-presidential pick will bring another dose of attention and curiosity. He won’t decide the election – but with his “weird” shtick and his reassuring presence to the white swing state voters who liked Joe Biden, he looks like a canny choice.

What else we’ve been reading

• What’s it like to survive a plane crash? Philip Oltermann talks to Juliane Koepcke, who at 17 was the sole survivor of a jet that was struck by lightning and crashed into a rainforest that took her 11 days to escape from. Toby Moses, head of newsletters

• Can magic mushrooms help end-of-life patients come to terms with death? Shayla Love has a fascinating piece on the evidence for why it works – and questions over whether it is right to pursue what could be a “comforting delusion”. Archie

• Andy Davies’ terrifying feature slams home the reality of the country’s diabetes crisis, as he follows patients and doctors at Welsh hospitals through the process of amputating limbs and saving vision. Toby

• Tracy McVeigh has an excellent profile of Sheikh Hasina, whose forced resignation as prime minister of Bangladesh this week brings one of the world’s most enduring political dynasties to an end – and centres questions about how her legacy will be defined. Archie

• Marina Hyde is on top form skewering the inciters of Britain’s race riots: “Elon Musk, Tommy Robinson, Nigel Farage, Laurence Fox: you don’t have to have taken a divorce well to be currently leading from behind on UK thuggery and race riots. But let’s be honest: it helps!” Toby

Sport

Paris 2024 | Britain’s Josh Kerr lost out on gold in the final yards of the men’s 1500m final after an Olympic-record run by underdog Cole Hocker of the USA delivered the shock of the Games – as the Team GB men’s cycling team also took silver in the velodrome. In the skateboarding final on the Place de Concorde, Britain’s Sky Brown secured a bronze, a result she described as “sick”. Lewis Richardson took Team GB’s first and only boxing medal of the Olympics with men’s light-middleweight bronze.

Football | Manchester City have agreed a club record deal worth up to €95m (£81.5m) with Atlético Madrid for the striker Julián Álvarez. The World Cup winner has been eager to be a more significant player – despite making 54 appearances and scoring 19 goals last season, he was seen as Erling Haaland’s understudy.

Rugby league | Wigan Warriors returned to form with a 28-6 victory against Leigh after two back-to-back defeats in the last month. The result returns Wigan to the top of the table at the expense of Hull KR.

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