While it might seem lifetime ago, it’s been just over two weeks since President Joe Biden announced that he would not seek re-election and endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris. Knowing she would be running against the clock, with a very compressed campaign schedule, Harris quickly jumped into action. In the first week, she reached out to party leaders and raised a lot of money very quickly. Then came the much tougher — and significant — task of picking a running mate.
A good running mate should strengthen a ticket’s chances in key states, help win over a certain block of voters and share a policy agenda with their presidential nominee.
Immediately after the Walz announcement, my phone exploded with friends, family and colleagues all saying basically the same thing.
By picking Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris has opted for compatibility and a more left-leaning policy agenda. But I know for a fact that a lot of moderate Republicans and right-leaning independents are less than thrilled about it. Immediately after the Walz announcement, my phone exploded with friends, family and colleagues all saying basically the same thing: “I was excited about Harris, and I’m still going to vote for her, but only as a vote against Trump.” In other words, this choice may not push anti-Trumpers back into the MAGA fold, but it is very disappointing. Some of the sparkle and promise is now gone.
During the last couple of weeks there was a palpable buzz among moderates especially. Biden stepped down, Harris stepped up, and both Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly were being floated as possible running mates.
Shapiro, has been working with a Republican-controlled state Senate to get things done in Pennsylvania, and Kelly most recently supported bipartisan immigration reform legislation, an issue he has publicly disagree with his own party on. What was so appealing to moderates about these men is that they are consensus-builders; they have worked with Republicans and picking either of them would prove that Harris wasn’t going to be the progressive candidate that they feared.
Polling strongly suggests that most people do not vote for a president based on their vice presidential pick. However, this decision does give voters a glimpse of what kind of leader the candidate would be if elected, and how they might govern.
As governor, Walz has successfully pushed a progressive legislative agenda in his home state, and this agenda will now be used by Republicans to frame Harris as a “San Francisco Liberal.” Among the issues that Republicans will certainly try to exploit are Walz’s push to allow undocumented migrants to be eligible for driver licenses, his restoration of voting rights for felons and his passage of tough climate change regulations.
A glowing endorsement from Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez will not help matters with swing voters. Although, to be fair, moderate West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin also supports the choice.
My statement on Vice President Kamala Harris choosing Governor @Tim_Walz as her running mate: pic.twitter.com/bUON01Plsx I was a senior adviser to The Lincoln Project and oversaw the day-to-day operations of Republicans and Independents for Biden. This coalition, along with other like-minded organizations, helped persuade moderate Republicans and right-leaning independents to vote for Biden, which in turn helped Biden over the finish line in 2020. So I know a fair amount about how to appeal to the sort of Republican who is desperately seeking a Trump alternative. By putting Walz on the ticket, it appears that the Harris campaign is betting that the people who voted for Trump in 2016, then flipped and voted for Biden in 2020, will either grimace and vote for Harris anyway, or just sit this election out. (And this may very well be true.) It also shows that Team Harris must still be at least a little worried about the liberal base, especially the “uncommitted” voters turned off by Biden’s support for Israel. It is likely that after the Democratic National Convention in a couple of weeks, we won’t see or hear much about Gov. Walz. It is also likely that Walz will not cause the headaches that Ohio Sen. JD Vance is already inflicting on the Trump ticket. Still, Walz is far from the bold choice that swing voters were looking for. We had hoped for better.
Susan Del Percio is a Republican strategist and a political analyst for MS NOW. 
