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Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris introduced her running mate Tim Walz at a rally Tuesday night in Philadelphia, where the duo pledged to secure freedom and hope they would support being stripped if former President Trump wins a second term in the White House.
The Minnesota governor, little known nationally before Harris named him Tuesday as his No. 2, told a raucous partisan audience that he is the product of small-town America, and he believes in old-fashioned values.
“I was born in West Point, Neb., and lived in Butte, a small town of 400 where community was a way of life,” Walz, 60, said. My mother and father taught us to show generosity towards your neighbors and to work for the common good.
Walz said that the communal force is great in Minnesota – the state that he has governed since 2019 – and that he plans to bring this culture to the White House.
“Minnesota’s strength comes from our values, our commitment to work together, to see beyond our differences, to lend a hand,” he said.
In Walz’s introduction, Harris painted her running mate as a gentle, common-sense alternative to Republican policies that she said have stripped away basic rights.
“We are fighting for a future where we defend our most fundamental freedoms,” he said. “We are fighting for the freedom to vote, the freedom to be safe from gun violence, the freedom to love who you love openly and proudly, and the freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body, without having the government tell them what to do.”
Minnesota’s Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz attends a campaign rally in Philadelphia.
(Matt Rourke/Associated Press)
Democrats were buoyed by Harris’ entry into the race two weeks ago after President Biden withdrew. Polls showed a narrowing of an already tight race. His campaign had reported more than $300 million in donations, and a spokesman said another $20 million poured in after Harris announced Tuesday morning on social media that Walz would join the ticket.
The new partners plan to visit the battleground states in the Midwest before flying West to live in Arizona and Nevada. The two states are expected to hold the key to victory in the election with the swing states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia.
Harris, 59, touted Walz’s resume Tuesday, portraying him to the crowd as a man who understands the jobs of regular Americans. She described her youth on a family farm in Nebraska, her two decades as a high school social studies teacher and her work as an assistant coach for the school’s championship-winning football team. state
She noted that Walz had simultaneously coached linebackers and supported students who wanted to start a gay-straight alliance at Mankato West High School.
“At a time when acceptance was hard to come by for LGBTQ students, Tim knew the signal he was sending to have a football coach who was involved,” Harris said. “So he signed up to be the group’s faculty advisor. The students said he made the school a safe place for everyone.”
His supportive stance led to a student vote that named Walz as the most inspiring faculty member, Harris said.
“We believe in lifting people up, not putting them down,” he said. “When we look at people, our fellow Americans, we see neighbors, not enemies.”
Walz said more than once that Harris had brought “joy” into America’s public arena, but the folksy politician proved he was not above throwing a punch.
He rebuked his main vice presidential rival, noting that Republican JD Vance’s rural roots grew up in a very different life than the one Walz recognized from Central America.
“Like all regular people, I grew up in the heart. JD studied at Yale, had his career financed by Silicon Valley billionaires and then wrote a bestseller that swept that community,” said Walz, before throw up his arms and scold: “Go! That’s not what Central America is.”
Walz drew knowing laughter from the crowd at Temple University’s Liacouras Center arena when he repeated one of his first attacks on the Republican ticket, calling Trump and Vance “creepy, and, yeah , just weird as hell.”
He found another punchline in the multiple criminal cases against Trump.
Walz said that the former president “froze in the face of the COVID crisis. He drove our economy into the ground. And make no mistake: violent crime was under Donald Trump. After applause, he added: “That’s not even counting the crimes he committed.”
Saying he welcomed the opportunity to discuss Vance, Walz made a thinly veiled reference to the Itchy rumor is apparently unfounded which involves its rival and some living room furniture.
“I can’t wait to debate the guy – if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up!” Walz said.
Harris and Walz both suggested that a second Trump term would deal a crushing blow to the government’s progressive programs.
They say the Republican is trying again to gut the Affordable Care Act, the law known as Obamacare that brought health coverage to millions of uninsured Americans; that he would “gut” Social Security and Medicare; and that he will continue to throw out abortions, a procedure that is much harder to obtain after Trump-appointed Supreme Court justices helped overturn the longstanding Roe v. Wade right to end one’s pregnancy.
“In America today, one in three women lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban,” Harris said. “Some of these prohibitions go back to the 1800s, before women had the right to vote.
“We have a message for Trump and those who want to take back our freedoms,” he continued: “We are not going back!”
That led to a prolonged chant from the crowd: “Don’t come back!”