Inside the 16 days between Kamala Harris’s launch and her choice of Tim Walz
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speak at a campaign rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Photo: AP/Matt Rourke
Kamala Harris’ whirlwind process to select Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate can be summed up in a word: weird.
With President Joe Biden and Harris, his vice president, seeking a second term together, Democrats weren’t supposed to have a veep search at all. But as soon as the 81-year-old president ended his campaign and endorsed Harris, it was go time. What followed was a 16-day blitz.
There was the behind-the-scenes action: Harris lieutenants furiously researching contenders, the vice president debating options with top aides and confidants, and, finally, a weekend of interviews with finalists. And there was the public campaign: Contenders found every cable news camera, stumped in battleground states for the prospective boss, tried out attack lines on Republican nominee Donald Trump and his understudy, Ohio Senator JD Vance — all while rival factions made their pitches and wielded their knives.
The whole thing was made more intense and conspicuous given the time constraints, highlighting the breadth of Democrats’ bench and, at the same time, the fragility of the party unity that defined Harris’ nascent White House bid. By the end, the process offered a preview of how Harris might fare under the pressures of the Oval Office, quickly working through options, with minimal leaks from her team and a result that, at least initially, has drawn plaudits from a party that seems intent on one undisputed goal: defeating Trump and Vance in November.
Biden called Harris on July 21 from his home state of Delaware, where the president had been isolating with covid-19 and considering his political future while more and more Democratic officials called publicly and angled privately for him to leave the race. The president told Harris that he had indeed decided to end his campaign.
The vice president had been careful in the weeks following Biden’s jolting debate performance against Trump not to say or do anything other than back the president. But that meant she had to make up ground.
Harris immediately tapped former Attorney General Eric Holder, a veteran of the Obama administration she had known well since her days as California attorney general, and Dana Remus, a former White House counsel for Biden, to lead the effort. Holder and a team of researchers and political veterans ultimately formally vetted nine choices — perhaps a shorter roster than it would normally be for a months-long process. In short, she needed a white man.
Speculation quickly settled on a trio of governors: North Carolina’s Roy Cooper, Kentucky’s Andy Beshear and Pennsylvania’s Josh Shapiro. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker got attention. The Washington contingent of contenders included Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Shapiro was seen as an early favorite because of his popularity in Pennsylvania, a critical battleground with 19 electoral votes that could block any path Trump might have to 270 electoral votes.
Cooper got prominent mentions as a second-term governor in a state Trump won twice. Beshear got attention as a governor elected twice in a solidly Republican state, and for his takedowns of Vance as a poser who is not actually from Appalachia. As Cooper’s star rose in the public imagination, he privately said he did not want to be vetted for the national post.
Walz, meanwhile, was largely an afterthought, on the campaign’s extended list. In the early days of the process, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, one of the only women thought to be in contention and herself widely presumed to be a future presidential candidate, declared publicly that she wanted to help Harris as a campaign chairwoman, not as running mate.
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. Key issues that resonated with Harris included Walz’s advocacy for IVF and child tax credits — a policy Walz has used in Minnesota.
The next key moment came on July 23 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 conversational, informal manner.
For years, Democrats 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. 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.
At the same time the contenders were auditioning publicly, Holder and Remus were diving through contenders’ lives, private records and public statements.
As the options narrowed to a shortlist, Kelly emerged as a leading contender along with Shapiro. His impressive military record and time as an astronaut, his experience dealing with immigration in a border state and good relationships with border sheriffs all worked in his favour.
Shapiro, meanwhile, was attracting negative attention from the left. The only Jewish contender on the list, his positions on the Israel-Hamas war have not been fundamentally different from the other contenders — or from Harris — and he has been harshly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But Shapiro was lumped in with reflexive defenders of the Israeli government.
As factions squabbled over Kelly and Shapiro, Walz may have benefitted from having a fan in former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Inside the Harris orbit, there was also some question as to whether Shapiro was actually too good on the stump — the opposite assessment from Kelly and perhaps more of a liability given Harris’ mixed reviews as a national campaigner over the years.
Meanwhile, late last week, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, an in-state rival to Shapiro, portrayed Shapiro as a political opportunist with his own ambitions. But Shapiro and Kelly remained in the mix privately and front-runners publicly.
When Harris took the stage in Atlanta the next day for the largest rally of her campaign to that point, she had the timing down precisely on Walz’s “weird” jab, eliciting roars from nearly 10,000 supporters. By then, Walz was getting credit as the message-maker, and finally being recognised as a genuine contender.
The United Auto Workers formally endorsed Harris’ presidential bid and told the vice president’s vetting team that organised labour was most excited about Beshear and Walz — and would not be enthusiastic about Shapiro or Kelly.
On Sunday, Harris welcomed Shapiro, Kelly and Walz for in-person interviews at her Naval Observatory residence. According to people familiar with the conversations, her 90 minutes with Walz stood out.
Harris had also been impressed with Walz’s record as a House member and governor, and his biography before politics: Army National Guard noncommissioned officer, public school teacher, high school football coach. Two politicians gelled.
The interviews and conversations with her team had Harris leaning firmly in Walz’s direction but she wanted to sleep on it. But she felt the same Tuesday morning that she did on Monday night — she would go with Walz.
It turns out Walz was not quite ready for his call. The first time Harris dialed his number, he ignored what showed up as a restricted number. When she dialed again, he answered.
“Listen, I want you to do this with me,” Harris told Walz. “Let’s do this together. Would you be my running mate and let’s get this thing on the road.”
- Associated Press
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