Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz cast their partnership as a shield for everyday freedoms against the whims of a potential Donald Trump second term during their debut rally together in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania.
“We’ve got some work to do. We need to move to the general election and win that,” the vice president said Tuesday to cheers in a raucous Philadelphia university arena as she introduced the running mate she’d named earlier in the day. “We also need to level-set, we are the underdog in this race. … I know what we are up against.”
Harris later called strengthening the middle class her “defining goal” if elected.
As the crowd chanted, “Lock him up” about the once-convicted GOP nominee Trump, Harris stopped them. “It’s not just a campaign against Donald Trump,” she said. “It’s a fight for a future … with affordable housing, affordable child care, paid leave. … The freedom to vote, the freedom to be safe against gun violence … and the freedom of a woman’s right to make decisions about her own body, not having the government tell her what to do.”
She described Walz as her ideal campaigning and governing partner, noting his time as a teacher, football coach, a National Guard veteran and a “model chief executive who” she contended “will be ready on Day One.” She added: “In 91 days, America will know Coach Waltz by another name, vice president of the United States.”
Harris officially became the Democrats’ nominee Monday — two weeks and two days after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race — following a virtual roll call of delegates to the party convention that starts in Chicago later this month. The Democratic standard bearers both went right at Trump.
“Minnesota’s strength comes from our values — our commitment to working together, to seeing past our differences, to lending a helping hand,” Walz said. “Donald Trump, he sees the world differently. He doesn’t know the first thing about service, because he’s too busy serving himself.”
He said violent crime rose under Trump’s term, quipping: “And that’s not even counting the crimes he committed.” Walz also harkened back to a time when “Republicans talked about freedom,” but now they want the government inside doctors offices. Democrats, he said, have a counter-message: “Mind your own damn business.”
Walz warned Trump would be hell-bent on banning abortion nationally, “whether Congress is there or not.” Trump has been vague on whether he would push such a ban. Walz also spoke about how he and wife Gwen had a daughter via IVF treatment, something Democrats contend Republicans want to restrict or ban.
The vice president announced her selection of the former House Veterans’ Affairs ranking member and Agriculture Committee member earlier Tuesday, with her fellow Democrats describing the new ticket as one that would appeal to urban progressives and rural moderates.
Walz touted his time in the House, saying he “worked across the aisle” and that he “took a leap” when he decided to run to represent a rural Minnesota district. He said Trump, in a possible second term, would “take us back” and “rig the economy to help the super-rich.” Comparing Trump’s first term to his plans for a second, Walz warned, “It will be much, much worse.”
The pairing was unthinkable just three weeks ago, when Biden was still the presumptive Democratic nominee before dropping out of the race on July 21 amid fears from powerful and rank-and-file party members about his age, stamina and ability to defeat Trump.
Harris said that as a House member and governor, Walz had worked with Republicans “to get things done,” saying he was “known as one of Capitol Hill’s best marksmen” and won a congressional sharpshooting contest “year after year.” Both traits are part of what her campaign hopes will be his battleground-state apparel.
Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, battling for his own reelection, declared earlier in the rally that Harris was “ready to defeat Donald Trump.” He also urged union members to support Harris and Walz and lashed out at “corporate greed.” Casey touted his legislative work against big companies, knocking his GOP opponent as too pro-big business.
“David McCormick will do anything to make a buck, anything to make money,” even when “it will hurt the people of our state,” Casey told the audience.
Another reported Harris running mate finalist, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, fired up the crowd just before the headliners appeared.
“I love being your governor,” he said loudly, adding he will continue to focus on “getting s**t done” for the state while also doing his part to win the White House in November. Shapiro said some voters seem to have “brain fog” about Trump as president. But he warned Trump has learned how to use the federal machinery for his own means and would erode Americans’ freedoms, a word he used over and over.
‘These guys are creepy’
Harris and Walz hit the stage at Temple University a few hours after the Republican vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, addressed reporters in the City of Brotherly Love.
Vance, whom Walz has criticized, hit the vice president over illegal immigration, high prices of everyday items and what he called a “saber-rattling” foreign policy.
“Let’s just count the ways in which our border czar opened the American southern border,” Vance said, before listing a number of actions that resided in the office of the president, not the VP. “For the past two weeks, Kamala Harris has been saying that she wants a promotion. I think we ought to say to Kamala Harris: You’re fired.”
Vance did not mention Walz until asked Tuesday by a reporter for his reaction to the pick around 21 minutes into his event. He responded by suggesting Democratic delegates, like officials and donors did to Biden, could force a “little switcheroo” that would lead to another vice presidential nominee.
“Tim Walz’s record is a joke. He’s been one of the most far left radicals in the entire United States government, at any level. But I think that what Tim Walz’s selection says is that Kamala Harris has bent the knee to the far-left wing of the party, which is what she always does,” Vance said.
Hours later, the Philadelphia crowd chanted of Vance: “He’s a weirdo,” with Shaprio noting it was Walz who first called him that. Harris described Walz and Vance as a “matchup between the varsity and JV squad,” meaning junior varsity. For his part, to cheers, the Democratic vice presidential nominee declared: “I can’t wait to debate the guy,” adding of the GOP duo: “These guys are creepy and, yes, just weird as hell.”
Three of the four top-of-ticket candidates were in the commonwealth as polls show the presidential race there to be a dead heat. The latest summary of multiple polls tabulated by RealClearPolitics put Trump ahead of Harris in Pennsylvania, 48.4 percent to 46.6 percent.
Biden defeated Trump there in 2020, 50 percent to 48.8 percent. In 2016, Trump took the state over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, 48.2 percent to 47.5 percent.
Casey told rally-goers Democrats could not win the White House nor retain control of the Senate without winning Pennsylvania.
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