Kamala Harris and Tim Walz: The Perfect Fit!

Pinch me. The political skies have been cloudy for so long, it’s hard to believe we’re now bathed in sunlight. But are we ever! So real and so sudden. As Gilbert and Sullivan once rhapsodized, “Oh joy, oh rapture unforeseen.”

Indeed, the world’s turned upside down in just the last two weeks. All for the better. Joe Biden stepped aside. Kamala Harris stepped up. And Donald Trump stepped in it.

Suddenly, Donald Trump, who was leading in all the polls, is no longer. Suddenly, the Republican Party is floundering, can’t figure out how to handle Kamala, and is having second thoughts about J.D. Vance. And suddenly, the Democratic Party, usually so fractured, is more united and excited than it’s been since the days of Barack Obama. Kamala Harris raised more than twice as much money as Trump in the last week of July.

And now the icing on the cake: Tim Walz! Kamala Harris could not have made a better choice.

In a sense, Kamala Harris could do no wrong, because she had such an outstanding bench to choose from, including, in addition to Walz, several governors: Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania; Andy Beshear, Kentucky; Roy Cooper, North Carolina; Gavin Newsom, California; Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan; J. B. Pritzker, Illinois; and Wes Moore, Maryland. Also on deck: Senators Mark Kelly, Arizona, and Raphael Warnock, Georgia, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Any one of them would have been an excellent choice. Any one of them would bring more executive or legislative experience to the table than J.D. Vance, who never ran for office before being elected to the Senate and has nothing to show for the year and a half he’s spent there so far.

But, in the end, Harris made the perfect choice. Even in a field of such strong candidates, Walz won the unofficial vice presidential primary for several reasons.

Geography. The Democratic Party already has a lock on both coasts (with the exception of the Southeast). It needs to strengthen its presence in the heartland, and Tim Walz’s the man to do it. While Minnesota may be safely blue, Walz can carry the flag to blue-collar and rural voters in the key Midwest swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Experience. Tim Walz is no professional politician. He served in the Army, before spending 24 years in the Army National Guard. He worked in agriculture and manufacturing and served as a high school teacher and football coach. Elected to Congress in 2006, he spent 12 years in the House before being elected g overnor of Minnesota in 2018 and re- elected in 2022. His military, private sector, teaching, legislative and executive experience dwarfs the thin resumes of Trump and Vance.

Politics. Walz is your classic, Midwestern, middle-of-the-road Democrat. He was known in the House for his bipartisanship. But he made no apology when Trump attacked him as the most progressive governor in the country. “What a monster!,” he quipped. “ Kids are eating and having full bellies so they can go learn. Women are making their own healthcare decisions. And we're a top five business state and we also rank in the top three of happiness."

In Minnesota, Walz adds, “our golden rule is: mind your own damn business. It’s amazing what minding your own business does to make things work better. Don’t like a book? Don’t read it!”

Message. The plain-speaking Walz won the unofficial vice presidential primary by branding Donald Trump and J.D. Vance with one word: “Weird!” “They’re just weird as hell,” he says at every rally. It’s the perfect word because everybody knows what it means, and everybody knows it fits. In last week’s “White Dudes for Harris” fundraiser, Walz colorfully summed up what’s at stake in 2024: “How often in 100 days do you get to change the trajectory of the world? … And how often in the world do you make that bastard wake up afterwards and know that a Black woman kicked his ass, and sent him on the road?”

Likeability. Enough hate talk, enough political sourpusses. Americans yearn for a politician they can relate to and like. Again, Tim Walz is your man. He exudes respect, friendship and fun. He’s real. He’s relatable. He’s as down-to-earth as your next-door neighbor. He’s clearly having a good time, and he wants you to have one, too.

Look at their rallies. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have brought joy back to politics. For Democrats, happy days are here again – at least for now. Let’s make ‘em last.

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(Bill Press is host of The BillPressPod, and author of 10 books, including: “From the Left: My Life in the Crossfire.” His email address is: bill@billpress.com. Readers may also follow him on Twitter @billpresspod.)