US Vice President Kamala Harris, accompanied by her brand new running mate Tim Walz, is heading to two key Midwestern states on Wednesday as part of a multi-day tour aimed at building on her campaign’s momentum.
The duo, which has only formed the Democratic ticket since the day before, has only three months before the presidential election in November to make itself known and attract undecided voters.
On Tuesday night, shortly after Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz announced his choice as his potential vice president if he wins, he and Harris took the stage together in Pennsylvania, another key swing state.
They are scheduled to hold two more campaign rallies in tandem on Wednesday, first in Wisconsin at midday and then in Detroit, Michigan, in the evening.
These two states in the Great Lakes region, which carried President Joe Biden in 2020, are considered must-win states for Kamala Harris if she wants to win the keys to the White House against Donald Trump.
For his part, the former president is on the charge, saying Wednesday morning that he was “delighted” with the choice of Tim Walz as his Democratic running mate. “This is a ticket that would have this country become communist immediately,” he said on Fox News.
But the task has become more complicated for the Republican billionaire since Joe Biden’s resounding withdrawal from the race for the White House in mid-July, in favor of his number 2, who is younger and more dynamic.
Notably, Donald Trump is not planning any campaign rallies this week, instead sending his own running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, to the same states as the Democratic duo.
Arizona then Nevada
The 59-year-old vice president has, in just over two weeks, managed to close the gap with Donald Trump in the polls, which now show the two camps neck and neck.
But after a start buoyed by the relief of his entry into the race, putting an end to the controversies surrounding Joe Biden’s health, the challenge now will be to manage to maintain this good momentum.
To do this, Kamala Harris is counting on her new right-hand man. A self-proclaimed hunter once supported by the NRA gun lobby, a former National Guard soldier, and a former American football coach born in a small town in Nebraska, Tim Walz is more likely to appeal to a rural electorate than the Californian.
While seducing even the left wing of his party. As governor of Minnesota, this former geography teacher notably pushed through the guarantee of the right to abortion, the legalization of marijuana and the strengthening of controls on the purchase of firearms.
Measures that immediately earned him being labeled a “leftist” by Republicans, who also criticized his handling of COVID-19 and the protests following the death of African-American George Floyd in 2020 in Minneapolis.
The sixty-year-old will also have to make up for his lack of notoriety among Americans.
The tour organized this week should help him: he and Kamala Harris are due to go to Arizona and then Nevada on Friday and Saturday, where the migration issue – a thorn in the Democratic side – is at the forefront.
However, stages initially planned in North Carolina and Georgia were compromised by storm Debby.
In the coming weeks, Kamala Harris will celebrate her inauguration, already won in an online vote by Democratic delegates that closed Monday, at the party’s major convention in Chicago, from August 19 to 22.
And she will not fail to be quickly expected on her program, having for the moment declined only a few proposals and given no interviews or press conferences since Joe Biden’s withdrawal.