Kamala Harris’ Surprising Choice of Vice Presidential Candidate

The choice of Tim Walz as candidate for U.S. vice president proves Kamala Harris’ political soundness. The former governor of Minnesota is far from being a typical American liberal, which helps him soften the ultra-left image of the Democratic presidential candidate.

In this year’s U.S. presidential election, candidates need 270 Electoral College votes to secure victory in the battle for the White House. After a relatively dramatic drop in Joe Biden’s ratings following this year’s first televised debate with Donald Trump, the Democratic Party is seeing a slow but consistent rise in the polls. The current situation, both at the national and state level, points to a remarkably level playing field for candidates from opposing camps. According to the 10 most recent public polls conducted after Biden’s withdrawal from the race and collected by RealClearPolitics, Trump leads on average by only 1%, compared with 3% on the eve of Biden’s replacement by Harris.

If Harris were to choose as her running mate a politician with the same liberal (in the American sense) views as herself, she would probably be stuck at the current, very marginal support level. However, it appears that she has made a reasonable choice, distancing herself somewhat from her own convictions. Walz belongs to the faction of Democratic Party activists who have views that lean slightly libertarian.

Walz Supports Access to Firearms

For example, take Walz’ position on free access to firearms. As a member of Congress, he held views completely different from those of the Obama and Biden administrations. He rejected any attempt to regulate access to firearms. His election campaigns were repeatedly supported by the NRA’s Political Victory Fund.

The NRA, which defends access to firearms, gave him an A rating, which means that it counted him among its defenders in Congress. After the Parkland High School shooting in 2018 , as governor of Minnesota, Walz denounced the NRA in an article published in the Star Tribune and announced that he would donate the $18,000 he had received from NRA-PVF,to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. Republicans, however, point out that he signed the Public Safety Act, which requires a criminal background check for anyone who wants to buy a firearm, as late as 2023.

Harris’ Nod to Political Center

Politically, Walz is not a fan of protectionism or the social handouts that Harris advocates. For example, Walz strongly opposed using taxpayer money to bail out financial institutions, as the Obama administration did during the 2008 financial crisis. As one of the few Democrats who did so, Walz voted alongside Republicans against the TARP bill, which subsidized financial institutions with an astronomical $700 billion bailout. At the end of 2008, he voted against a bill offering $14 billion in government loans to save the American auto industry. However, he didn’t hesitate to support laws stimulating the scientific and agricultural sectors, important for the economy of his native Minnesota.

The choice of Walz as the Democratic Party’s vice presidential candidate is therefore a nod to the moderately liberal and moderately conservative voters of the U.S. Midwest who traditionally vote for Republican candidates. It’s a good move, although Rust Belt voters will never forgive Walz’s opposition to subsidizing heavy industry in 2008, on which the region’s economy is heavily reliant.