Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will spend their first full day as running mates on Wednesday rallying Democrats across the Midwest, a politically divided region that is crucial to their effort to win the White House in less than three months.
The trip, which begins in Wisconsin before shifting to Michigan, is aimed at shoring up support among the younger, diverse, labor-friendly voters who were instrumental in helping President Joe Biden win the 2020 election. But that coalition showed signs of fraying over the summer, particularly in Michigan, which has emerged as a focal point of Democratic divisions over Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
MORE: Pritzker praises Walz as ‘proven leader’ after Minnesota governor picked as Harris’ running mate
With Biden now out of the race and Harris officially the Democratic nominee, leaders of the Arab American community and key unions say they are encouraged by the choice. Walz’s addition to the ticket has soothed some tensions, signaling to some community leaders that Harris heard concerns about another leading contender for the vice presidential slot, Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who they felt had gone too far in his support for Israel.
“The party is recognizing that there’s a coalition they have to rebuild,” said Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan. “Picking Walz is another sign of good faith.”
Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat seeking a third term, appeared with Harris at a campaign stop there last month in suburban Milwaukee, and said in a fundraising email Tuesday morning that she was “thrilled to see a fellow Midwesterner at the top of the ticket.”
MORE: Everything to know about the DNC in Chicago in August
Donald Trump had put a similar emphasis on appealing to voters in Midwestern states with his choice of Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his vice presidential pick. Vance will again bracket the Harris-Walz ticket with appearances in the same states on Wednesday. He is starting his day in Michigan before heading to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the same city where the Democratic candidates will appear hours later before going to Michigan.
Both campaigns had planned to journey to North Carolina this week as well but called off those plans due to inclement weather concerns.
Harris-Walz vs. Trump-Vance: It’s now an expanded battle for both the Sun Belt and Rust Belt
The most turbulent presidential campaign in generations is now set to play out as a 90-day sprint across two fronts: the Rust Belt and the Sun Belt.
With her choice of a Midwestern governor as a running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris pushed to shore up “Blue Wall” states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — that Democrats need to win to keep the White House.
Harris, the first Black woman and woman of South Asian descent to head a major party ticket, and former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, will also be locked in Sun Belt competition to win Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina, an electoral map that has expanded since Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race.
An underappreciated jump-start for Walz
Tim Walz had two jump starts, the first largely unnoticed, the second underappreciated.
The first came earlier this year when the governor and the vice president visited a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Paul. That visit underscored shared values between the two, according to people familiar with Harris’ thinking. Key issues that resonated with Harris included Walz’s advocacy for in vitro fertilization and child tax credits — an idea Walz has used in Minnesota.
The next key moment came July 23, two days after Biden’s withdrawal, when Walz went on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and uttered a dig at Trump and Vance that quickly went viral.
“These guys are just weird,” Walz said, in his signature conversational, informal manner.
For years, Democrats, including Biden and Harris, have leveled high-minded attacks on Trump as a threat to democracy. They spotlighted his legal troubles, racist and sexist rhetoric, the hard-right policies found in the “Project 2025” agenda that Trump disavows. The jovial governor of Minnesota encapsulated it all in one word: “weird.” And he smiled while doing it.
Social media did its thing, and the Harris campaign took notice. Within days, the vice president — and other vice-presidential contenders — were using “weird” like an epithet.