U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris named Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, bringing to the ticket a skilled executive with folksy charm who has shown he isn't afraid to embrace policies that lean on the government’s ability to improve people’s lives.

Walz, 60, is, in many ways, the perfect counterbalance to Harris. He brings deep experience as a governor, House contacts from his six terms as a congressman and an everyman back story that made him stand out amid the usual elite lawyer candidates.

With a single word — "weird” — Walz pulled off something few candidates for the job have ever done. He reframed the entire Democratic message. Gone was the casting of Donald Trump as some dark lord threatening democracy. Instead, Walz tried an old schoolyard tactic — casting the bully and his gang as weirdos. The taunt shrank Trump, putting him in a new and mocking light.