US polls: What Walz gets Harris, what he doesn’t
Harris embarked on a career in law as a public prosecutor, before she ran for office and became a district attorney and eventually the California attorney general
Washington: Kamala Harris’s decision to pick Minesota’s governor Tim Walz as her running mate gives her a political edge in terms of political narrative in middle American and provides balance to the ticket. But it doesn’t necessarily help her with particular geographies or swing voters that will be critical to shaping the 2020 outcome.
Here is what Walz brings to the table.
Harris is Black and Indian-American. Walz is White. Harris is from the West Coast, a child of an economist father and a scientist mother, who grew up around the world of academics and went to law school. Walz was born in Nebraska in the heart of America, a child of an army veteran and a homemaker, who grew up on his family farm and joined the National Guard at the age of 17.
Harris embarked on a career in law as a public prosecutor, before she ran for office and became a district attorney and eventually the California attorney general. Walz went to college, became a social studies teacher and a football coach, shifted to his wife’s home state of Minesota, before he ran for Congress. Harris won in the decisively Blue California where her competition was essentially other Democrats. Walz won from a conservative rural Republican district in middle America that had only once elected a Democrat before him.
As Harris rose through the ranks in California politics and eventually became an elected Senator in 2016, Walz quietly built a presence in party on Capitol Hill and joined the veteran affairs committee. As Harris became a national figure, ran for president and became vice president, Walz turned to state politics and became Minesota’s governor.
So what Walz’s selection does for sure is balances the ticket in terms of geography, race, social, economic and professional background, political trajectory and established national security credentials.
In addition, Walz has come into prominence for the manner in which he takes on the Republican far-Right with authenticity and authority on the terrain that they claim to be fighting on. It is hard to dismiss Harris as a California liberal who doesn’t know the “real America”.
It is impossible to dismiss Walz who has spent his life in precisely this real America as an out of touch elite. And Democrats will be using him in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin as deploys his humour and offers an unapologetic defence of liberal politics as it pertains to individual freedom, social welfare benefits, paid family leave, health care and education.
But here is what Walz may not get Harris.
Minesota is a reliably Blue state and so in terms of geography, he doesn’t really had votes in the electoral college. Josh Shapiro, the other big contender for the running mate spot, is a popular Pennsylvania governor and the state is a must-win for Democrats, and may have been electorally a safer bet.
The progressive enthusiasm for Walz is an asset as far as the Democratic base is concerned but it may also be a liability as far as the centrist, swing vote is concerned. The Republican narrative on Harris portrays her as “radical Left”, and to win over this segment, Harris needs to move to the centre on issues ranging from oil and gas fracking to border immigration; it is unclear how much Walz will be able to help with this aim, especially as Republicans are already defining him as an addition to a far Left ticket.
But for now, it is clear that the Harris-Walz ticket has enthused the liberal, anti-Trump political world in America. Whether it is enough for voters beyond the liberal world will be known in November.