Vice President Kamala Harris’ choice for her running mate came down to two governors — one who offered to deliver the most populous 2024 battleground but threatened to alienate important party factions, and a little-known contender with progressive credentials from a reliably blue state.
In the end, Harris bypassed the pick from a more politically valuable state — Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro — for Minnesota’s Tim Walz, opting for a folksy governor whose mocking of Republicans Donald Trump and J.D. Vance as "weird” became a rallying cry for Democrats.
Walz’s selection completes a two-week makeover of the Democratic ticket after President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid, and it focuses the party’s hopes of defeating Trump on turning out the very progressive voters and rank-and-file labor members whose support for the sitting president had eroded.