Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her vice-presidential running mate for November’s election. VP picks rarely, if ever, win a US election, although poor choices – such as Senator John McCain plucking Sarah Palin from Alaskan obscurity in 2008 – can certainly damage a campaign.
Will Governor Walz make the crucial difference for Harris this year? Minnesota is a state the Democrats will have to hold if they are to have any chance of retaining the White House. The wider Mid-West is a key battleground in which the Trump campaign is performing particularly well.
Harris will be hoping that Walz can win over sections of the white working class. He served in the National Guard and has worked in blue-collar jobs. The governor is an enthusiastic gun owner and has previously represented a traditionally Republican district in Congress.
But there are other aspects of his record which will go down less well with conservative and moderate voters. When George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis in 2020, Walz was already governor. As his state’s main city descended into rioting and looting in the aftermath, causing tens of millions of dollars worth of losses to the local community, it took Walz three days to call in the National Guard.
By choosing Walz, Harris overlooked the most touted choice, Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania. Mr Shapiro would have been the first ever Jewish vice-president if the ticket had won. While his views on Israel are very much in the American mainstream, one must hope that in today’s febrile atmosphere given the conflict in the Middle East, a cynical hunt for anti-Israel votes was not the reason for his exclusion