Why did Kamala Harris choose Tim Walz as her running mate?

With less than three months to go before the election, the duo wants to present themselves as complementary in an attempt to cast the net as widely as possible, with the ultimate objective of conquering key states.

His nomination is a surprise. Tim Walz was chosen as running mate by the Democratic candidate for the American presidential election, Kamala Harris, on Tuesday, August 6. Why did she choose a virtual unknown to the detriment of Josh Shapiro, who was the big favorite? Franceinfo presents the main explanations.

A complementary duo, to cast a wide net

With less than three months to go before the election, the Harris-Walz duo wants to present itself as a complementary ticket capable of attracting a very large electorate. Kamala Harris, a black and South Asian woman from the California coast, had selected only white men among the finalists for the position of running mate, most of them from the interior of the country. They included Josh Shapiro, governor of Pennsylvania, Andy Beshear, governor of Kentucky, and Mark Kelly, former astronaut and senator from Arizona.

According to information from New York Timesinternal polls conducted by Kamala Harris’ team had indicated that she could win the White House with any of the three finalists at her side. The choice then fell on Tim Walz, whom she likes to call “Coach Walz”. “A guy from the Midwest” which does not have “not really the profile of a coastal Democrat, like Kamala Harris, who is from San Francisco,” “, emphasizes on franceinfo the historian Lauric Henneton, lecturer at the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. Another complementarity: she was a prosecutor, he is a former senator.

“Key States” in the crosshairs

An important element of understanding in this decision: Tim Waltz is governor of Minnesota, a state coveted by Donald Trump for the November deadline. He can speak to “white, rural America, but also small-town America, rural America, what is also called ‘flyover country’, over which we fly between the coasts, which feels forgotten and despised by the Democratic elites of the big cities,” continues Lauric Henneton on Franceinfo.

Tim Walz’s choice is therefore “clever because it speaks to voters who are not typical Democratic voters,” “especially in key states”, he explains. As was the case four years ago, everything could indeed be decided in November by the uncertain outcome of a few swing statesIn 2016, Donald Trump caused a stir by winning several of these territories by just a few tens of thousands of votes.

Together, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will travel to several pivotal states between now and Saturday for a tour that should set the tone for their understanding and complementarity.

A staunch defender of abortion rights with a positive track record

As soon as Tim Walz was appointed, Donald Trump’s campaign team tried to label him as a “dangerous extremist leftist”. “Tim Walz’s record is a joke”tackled JD Vance, Donald Trump’s Republican running mate. His record as governor of Minnesota, however, was rather to his advantage in obtaining the post. In particular, he allowed the local ban on conversion therapy and even universal free meals for students.

Elected in 2019, Tim Walz was also forced to juggle two major crises: the Covid-19 pandemic and the death of African-American George Floyd under the knee of a white police officer on May 25, 2020. Minneapolis, the state’s largest city, was set ablaze, the starting point for a huge movement of anti-racist protests that shook America for many months.

Republicans accuse the governor of being too lax in his handling of crime, while Democrats, on the contrary, praise his record on protecting the right to abortion. After the Supreme Court ruling in June 2022, striking down the constitutional protection of abortion, Tim Walz indeed pledged to make his state a sanctuary for women seeking abortions. A clinic, located in the neighboring state of North Dakota, much more repressive, then moved to his side of the border. In March 2024, the governor participated in the first trip by a vice president to a clinic performing abortions.