Kamala Harris and Tim Walz present their duo to Americans

(Philadelphia) Kamala Harris and her newly appointed running mate Tim Walz arrived on stage together Tuesday in Philadelphia for their first campaign rally together, intended to introduce the duo to Americans just three months before the presidential election.

The Democratic candidate and the man who would become her vice president if they win in November have little time to convince voters.

“This campaign, our campaign, is not just a fight against Donald Trump,” Harris said to cheers from supporters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. “Our campaign – this campaign – is a fight for the future.”

The rally kicks off a multi-day tour of key states that is meant to set the tone for their understanding and complementarity. Pennsylvania is one of the states that carried Joe Biden to the White House in 2020, and one that will be decisive again this year.

Kamala Harris said she was “proud” to have chosen the Minnesota governor to try to win the keys to the White House.

Hailing from the Midwest, the 60-year-old former teacher and football coach is little known outside his home state but has been seen as a potential helper in winning the votes of undecided voters.

“As a governor, a coach, a teacher and a veteran,” Tim Walz “has stood up for working families like his own,” the vice president said in announcing her choice Tuesday morning.

“It’s the honor of a lifetime,” the man said on X, promising to “give it his all.”

Atypical journey

Kamala Harris, who would become the first black woman elected president of the United States if she wins, has, as expected, chosen a white man to form the Democratic ticket with her.

A former National Guard soldier with an atypical background, Tim Walz comes from a rural background, unlike the vice president.

Seen as rather moderate, the governor has nevertheless also taken measures labeled progressive, such as the legalization of the recreational use of marijuana and the reinforcement of controls on the purchase of firearms – all while claiming to be a hunter.

President Joe Biden, who shook up the campaign by giving up his bid for a second term in mid-July in favor of his number 2, welcomed the choice of running mate. The duo “will be a powerful voice for working people and the American middle class,” he said.

Donald Trump’s campaign team immediately called Tim Walz a “dangerous leftist extremist.”

“Tim Walz’s record is a joke,” said JD Vance, Donald Trump’s Republican running mate, in front of supporters who also gathered in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

The 40-year-old senator from Ohio, another industrial state in the “Midwest,” is due to travel to several of the same states as the Democratic duo in the coming days to speak for the Trumpist camp.

Momentum to be maintained

Kamala Harris, 59, had just two weeks to choose her running mate, after the shock withdrawal of Joe Biden’s candidacy, weighed down by concerns about his fitness at 81.

A selection process accelerated compared to the long months usually taken to dissect each aspect of the lives of the different candidates.

The list of possible running mates included Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and former astronaut-turned-Arizona senator Mark Kelly.

Since her recent entry into the race, Kamala Harris has caught up with Joe Biden’s lead over Donald Trump in voting intentions and has seen the amounts raised for her campaign soar. But she will have to succeed in maintaining this momentum over time.

In mid-August, she will celebrate her inauguration at the major Democratic convention planned for Chicago.

After the Republican convention in mid-July, Donald Trump, who had survived an assassination attempt a few days earlier, emerged as the total master of his party.

Since then, he has been trying to break the good momentum created by his rival.

The former president attacks her in particular on the issue of migration and also recently accused her of having “become black” for political reasons.