Kamala Harris selects Tim Walz for VP

I have a much shinier object today than "filtering the news since Thursday through comedy" as I thought I would write about yesterday.* Instead, I'm featuring MSNBC reporting ‘Great chemistry’: Harris picks Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.

Vice President Harris has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. NBC News' Yamiche Alcindor, Chuck Todd, former Senator Claire McCaskill and former senior adviser and chief spokesperson to VP Harris Symone Sanders-Townsend join Ana Cabrera to react to the pick.

I think Chuck Todd placing Walz in the mainstream of the Democratic Party is correct. When I arranged the five main contenders in the Veepstakes from left to center, Walz was the median candidate, smack in the center of the ideological spectrum of likely picks. On that basis alone, I think he was a good choice.

For a more tactical and strategic take, I turn to Kornacki breaks down the potential impact of Harris picking Walz.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was chosen as Vice President Harris's running mate pick. MSNBC's Steve Kornacki is at the Big Board to break down the potential impact of the pick in certain states.

I was hopeful Kornacki would find something more optimistic to say about Walz that my comment that "they would get the Democratic base even more enthused, but I don't know if they would appeal to swing state independents beyond them being white men from the Midwest." Nope. Still, he won't hurt Harris's chances, either.

I also wrote that "I think any of the five would acquit themselves well" against JD Vance. The next clip shows that will be the case as 'Happy warrior' Tim Walz is 'complete opposite' of 'angry' JD Vance: Julián Castro.

Vice President Harris announced today that she has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate. Former senior adviser and chief spokesperson to VP Harris Symone Sanders-Townsend, former HUD Secretary Julián Castro and former Rep. Carlos Curbelo join José Díaz-Balart to discuss.

I think Kamala Harris is also a "happy warrior," so the Democrats have two of them in contrast to the angry warriors on the Republican ticket. Also, Walz's experience contrasts with JD Vance's youth and inexperience in a way that balances Harris's relative youth contrasting with convicted criminal Hoover Cleveland's age. We get to have our cake and eat it, too!

I conclude with a graphic I should have made for the Veepstakes from left to center, Walz's ideological position from Voteview.



I didn't know Walz had been a member of Congress, so I didn't know about his Voteview score of -0.275, which was more conservative than 86% of Democrats in the 115th Congress while also being more liberal than 61% of the House. Based on the comments about Walz having had an A grade from the NRA at the beginning of his time in the House and having an F grade now, he has probably moved to the left since he became Governor. Still, he definitely has a more moderate reputation than Harris, who was the second most liberal member of the Senate when she became Vice President. Balance!

I still plan on writing more about Walz and Vance on Veep Day. Stay tuned.

*Also, The Daily Show was the only regular source with one of its regular hosts on last night. I wasn't feeling it.