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11-21-2024 5:06 am • PDX and SEA Weather
MLK Breakfast
Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, looking to strengthen the Democratic ticket in Midwestern states.
She will introduce Walz at a rally Tuesday evening in Philadelphia.
Harris was the only candidate eligible to receive votes after no other candidate qualified by a deadline last week. She officially claimed the nomination Monday night when the DNC released final results.
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A group founded in June by current and former Republican women who oppose Donald Trump for president came out in favor of Walz as Harris’ pick, in part for Walz’s fiscal measures and policy accomplishments aimed at women.
“As Governor, he’s cut taxes for the middle class while balancing the budget, supported paid family leave so new mothers can be home to care for their children, expanded access to pre-kindergarten, and make sure that no Minnesotan child goes hungry at school,” a release from Women4U.S. states.
The group is a federal superPAC whose honorary advisers include former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, former New Hampshire Republican Chair Jennifer Horn and founding editor of The Weekly Standard, Bill Kristol.
Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi welcomed the Minnesotan to what she called the Harris-Walz “freedom ticket.”
“In the Congress, I saw firsthand Tim Walz’s leadership, collaborative spirit and effectiveness in bringing people together and getting the job done,” Pelosi said in a statement.
The former Democratic House speaker was pivotal in reshaping the presidential race as President Joe Biden stepped aside and she said the field of potential VP candidates “demonstrated the strength and vitality of the next generation of Democratic leadership.”
It didn’t take Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin long to seize on Harris’ selection of Walz as a fundraising tool for her competitive reelection campaign.
“We’re thrilled to see a fellow Midwesterner at the top of the ticket,” Baldwin said in a fundraising email sent late Tuesday morning.
Baldwin, seeking a third term, is among several incumbent Democratic senators seeking reelection in states viewed as pivotal to the presidential campaign, and where an uptick in enthusiasm since Harris’ takeover of Joe Biden’s campaign has lifted the party’s hope of holding the seat.
Baldwin spoke at Harris’ first campaign stop as a candidate last month, an upbeat rally in suburban Milwaukee.
“Wisconsin has emerged as the tipping point state that will determine who wins the White House and which party controls the Senate,” Baldwin’s email said.
Biden carried Wisconsin in 2020 by fewer than 21,000 votes.
Voto Latino co-founder and President Maria Teresa Kumar said Walz’s selection to the ticket would help energize Latino voters who want a more inclusive democracy.
Kumar said in a statement that Walz’s “strong record of defending democracy, protecting voting rights, and standing up for working families in Minnesota aligns perfectly with the values our organization and the Latino community hold dear.”
She added that she knows the vice president and governor personally and knows they’ll represent a powerful voice for “progress, equality and opportunity for Latino communities and all Americans.”
Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly said he and his wife, former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, will do everything they can to elect Harris and Walz after Kelly was passed over for the Democratic ticket.
Kelly sent an email to supporters urging them to contribute to the Harris-Walz ticket.
“Tim has years of experience representing Minnesota both in the House of Representatives, where he served with Gabby, and as Minnesota’s governor,” Kelly wrote. “In that time, he has shown up time and time again for working families and I know he’ll continue that work in the White House.”
Meanwhile, the head of GIFFORDS, a gun-control advocacy group founded by Kelly and Giffords, called Walz “a strong gun safety champion.”
“Gun violence is a top concern for Americans this election cycle and we know the Harris-Walz ticket is the only one that will stand up to the gun lobby and save lives,” said GIFFORDS Executive Director Emma Brown, who managed Kelly’s 2022 Senate campaign and was his deputy campaign manager when in his first race two years earlier 2020.
Vance is aiming to tie what he portrays as Harris’ failures along the U.S.-Mexico border to deaths from drug addiction.
Vance told several hundred supporters gathered in a South Philadelphia event space that, “thanks to the policies of Kamala Harris, you’ve got children who’ve been orphaned” when their parents die from drugs.
Several Pennsylvanians shared personal stories of how addiction issues have impacted their families.
As he has over several speeches and interviews in recent weeks, Vance told his own story related to drug addition, noting that his mother has been drug-free for a decade but, as a child, he was “desperately hoping and praying, Jesus, please let her wake up from this.”
U.S. government data undercuts the claim that people seeking asylum and other border crossers are responsible for drug trafficking. At a hearing last year, James Mandryck, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection deputy assistant commissioner, said 73% of fentanyl seizures at the border since the previous October were smuggling attempts carried out by U.S. citizens, with the rest being done by Mexican citizens.
“Governor Walz doesn’t just have the experience to be vice president, he has the values and the integrity to make us proud,” the former president and first lady said in a statement.
They said Walz enacted progressive priorities as Minnesota governor including paid family leave, abortion rights and gun safety measures.
“But Tim’s signature is his ability to talk like a human being and treat everyone with decency and respect,” the Obamas said.
The Republican told reporters aboard his campaign plane Tuesday that he called Walz earlier in the day but “I left him a voicemail, I didn’t get him.”
It’s not clear if there will be a debate between Vance and Walz. Last week, Trump said he wouldn’t take part in an ABC News debate that had been on the books for September because he made that agreement with Biden before the president exited the campaign.
Instead, Trump said he would debate Harris on Sept. 4 on Fox News, but the vice president hasn’t agreed to that time or network yet.
FILE - Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., appears for a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Nov. 5, 2019. Harris, the daughter of immigrants who rose through the California political and law enforcement ranks to become the first female vice president in U.S. history, is poised to secure the Democratic Party's presidential nomination Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
Biden called on Democrats and all Americans to rally behind them.
“They will be the strongest defenders of our personal freedoms and our democracy,” Biden said in a social media post. “And they will ensure that America continues to lead the world and play its role as the indispensable nation.”
Biden said choosing a running mate is a party nominee’s first major decision and praised Harris’ choice. He said he’s known Walz for nearly two decades, praising his background as a teacher, football coach and National Guard soldier.
“Every generation of Americans faces a moment where they are asked to defend American democracy,” Biden said. “That moment is now.”
White House Senior Deputy Press Secretary Emilie Simons says Biden and Harris spoke on the phone Tuesday morning ahead of the official announcement that she selected Walz and that Biden spoke with Walz to congratulate him.
In his first public comments since his general election foe was set, JD Vance on Tuesday called Walz a choice that “highlights how radical Kamala Harris is.”
In a gaggle with reporters aboard his campaign plane upon landing in Philadelphia, Vance said Walz “is a person who listens to the Hamas wing” of the Democratic Party and “who wants to make the American people more reliant on garbage energy instead of good American energy.”
Vance is speaking more to reporters in Philadelphia on Tuesday ahead of campaign events across Midwestern battleground states on Wednesday, in a path that somewhat mirrors Harris and Walz’s planned trajectory.
“Great choice,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“Having served for years with Tim in the House of Representatives, I can say without reservation: there’s no better person Vice President Harris could have picked to run and then govern alongside her,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.
Walz “has always put our country first,” Van Hollen said, and he’s excited to campaign for the Harris-Walz ticket for “a brighter future for all Americans.”
Rep. Mark Takano of California recalled how after Walz beat him during an internal House caucus vote to become the top Democrat on the Veterans Affairs Committee, his colleague “immediately brought me into the fold because that’s the type of leader he is: a collaborative bridge builder.”
And Vermont Sen. Peter Welch, who entered Congress with Walz in 2007, said he “has always had this very straightforward, direct, open approach to things.”
Welch described Walz as “one of these guys in the gym who wouldn’t undo his tie” because it would be faster for him to get back to work.
Tim Walz’s biography as a military veteran and former high school teacher – two broadly trusted professions – may also help him appeal to Americans as he campaigns with Vice President Kamala Harris.
About 9 in 10 U.S. adults say they have a favorable opinion of military veterans, generally, according to an Ipsos poll conducted in 2024. About 8 in 10 say that about school teachers. Both measures are much higher than for government employees or elected officials. Republicans are slightly more likely than Democrats to have a positive view of veterans, while Democrats are a bit more likely to have a favorable opinion of those in a teaching career.
Gallup polling from 2022 found that high school teachers are generally held in high regard among Americans for their honesty and ethical standards. About half, 53%, gave them at least a high rating on ethics.
Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is hoping her VP choice, Tim Walz, will strengthen the Democratic ticket in Midwestern states and among working class voters.
AP VoteCast shows that when Walz was elected Minnesota governor in 2022, he won young voters in the state. He also did well in Minnesota’s union households, winning nearly 6 in 10 voters in that group. About half of Minnesota voters, 52%, had a favorable view of Walz, and about 4 in 10 had a negative one.
And while Walz lost white voters without a college education in the state, he outperformed Democrats nationwide with this group. He also struggled among white men, a demographic Democrats have sought to win back from President Donald Trump, but did a little better among this group than Democrats nationwide.
However, Walz lost among military veteran households in Minnesota in 2022, according to VoteCast.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will need to introduce himself to the vast majority of Americans.
An ABC News/Ipsos survey conducted before Walz was selected as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, but after vetting began, showed that nearly 9 in 10 U.S. adults did not know enough to have an opinion about him. Among Americans with a view, opinions were split between positive and negative: 6% had a favorable view, and 7% had an unfavorable one.
Walz’s lack of a national profile as he joins Harris on the campaign trail extends to his own party. Nearly 9 in 10 Democrats also didn’t know enough to have an opinion of Walz in the ABC News/Ipsos poll. One in 10 had a favorable view of him, and just 4% had a negative opinion. He was an unknown figure among most Democrats across the party: those older and younger were similarly likely to not know Walz, as well as white Democrats and non-white Democrats.
U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar says Walz is someone who is “just unendingly optimistic and joyous, and that is very, very important right now in our politics.”
The fellow Minnesotan who served with Walz in Congress told The Associated Press “he’s blunt, but he’s also positive” in a way she believes will provide an upbeat message in contrast to the Trump-Vance Republican ticket.
“I always think of him in his plaid shirt because he was always making the point it’s ‘One Minnesota,’” said Klobuchar, a Democrat. “And I think that’s a point you’re going hear him talk about with our nation.”
She said his background as a hunter and someone who fishes “just brings a different perspective to the White House.”
The SUVs left amid cheers from residents lined up on the sidewalk.
Jeremy Green Eche was in the middle of getting his toddler dressed the moment news broke that Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris had selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate.
And he was amped.
Eche was uniquely invested in Harris’ pick. He currently owns the rights to HarrisWalz.com, a site he bought in 2020 — along with a slate of other Harris sites — when the would-be vice president was in the midst of a primary campaign for president. Four years and one vice presidential pick later, Eche is willing to sell the slate of Harris websites, including the one featuring Walz, for $15,000.
“I was constantly refreshing four different news sites on my phone,” he told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “I was very excited.” He said he “almost immediately” began getting calls from both journalists and “friends I hadn’t heard from in a while.”
This is not a new scenario for the 36-year-old trademark lawyer in Brooklyn, New York. Eche is a cyber squatter, someone who buys a domain with someone else’s name or brand in it for very little money, hoping to sell it to that person or brand for a large profit in the subsequent months or years. In 2011, when it looked likely that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee in 2016, then Jeremy Peter Green – he took his wife’s last name – purchased ClintonKaine.com.
After the former secretary of state picked Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, the squatter offered it to the campaign for a hefty return. They declined, so he sold it for $15,000 to a digital marketing company that turned out to be the Trump campaign. The website pushed anti-Clinton news with “Paid for by Donald J. Trump for President, Inc” emblazoned at the bottom.
Eche supported Clinton in 2016 and supports Harris today. The prospect of something like that happening again doesn’t give Eche pause, however.
“The Harris campaign has hundreds of millions of dollars, so if they don’t buy their own domain, that is kind of on them,” he said Monday. But he isn’t convinced they will buy the domain.
“I don’t want to be too confident that somebody will reach out,” he said after Walz was selected. “I would say there’s a 75% chance that one of the campaigns, or a PAC, will buy it from me.”
In a Tuesday morning post on X, Walz said joining the ticket with Harris is “the honor of a lifetime.”
His profile details on X are now “Running to win this thing with @kamalaharris.”
Shapiro called Walz “an exceptionally strong addition to the ticket” who’ll help Harris become the 47th president.
Shapiro, who met with Harris on Sunday about the job, said he was grateful to talk about “her vision for the role and the campaign ahead.”
“As I’ve said repeatedly over the past several weeks, the running mate decision was a deeply personal decision for the vice president – and it was also a deeply personal decision for me. Pennsylvanians elected me to a four-year term as their governor, and my work here is far from finished – there is a lot more stuff I want to get done for the good people of this commonwealth,” Shapiro said in a statement.
He said he considers Walz a good friend and pledged to travel the state over the next three months to help Democrats defeat former President Donald Trump “and build a better future for our country.”
“Vice President Kamala Harris has my enthusiastic support – and I know that Governor Tim Walz is an exceptionally strong addition to the ticket who will help Kamala move our country forward,” Shapiro said.
David Ivory, 46, stood outside the Governor’s mansion with his two children. Ivory found out Walz was selected after his wife texted him “OMG” from work.
He and his kids immediately hopped on their bikes and rode to the Governor’s residence in St. Paul.
Ivory and his family are longtime admirers of Walz for his liberal record and amiable political persona.
“He’s just down to earth. He gets it. He can talk to anybody,” Ivory said.
“He doesn’t seem like he’s above anybody. He was a teacher. He understands kids, which is very important.”
Harris says her new running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has ‘delivered for working families’
“It’s great to have him on the team,” Harris said.
Harris posted on X that she was proud to announce she asked Walz to join her on the 2024 ticket.
State Voices launched a $3 million nationwide campaign Tuesday to encourage voters of color to vote based on the issues that affect their day-to-day lives, like grocery price spikes or growing rent and mortgage payments.
Under the Vote for Something campaign, the coalition aims to register 800,000 voters, make more than 250 million voter contacts, and encourage 100,000 people to make a plan to vote on or ahead of the 2024 election for themselves and others.
They’ve registered more than 400,000 voters so far.
State Voices, like many voting rights advocates, hopes for messaging that transcends the top of the ticket — a looming match between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
“Whatever the issue is that matters to you, vote for something. Get out this November and bring a friend and a family member with you,” said Mishara Davis, the group’s director of issue and electoral organizing.
The key has been reaching voters who may be tired of the political space altogether or who are eligible to vote but aren’t registered and therefore may not receive voting information — especially in presidential swing states, Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, which are primary areas under the campaign.
This comes as Harris, who is in Pennsylvania this week, has chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, sources say. The pair will continue the campaign tour to Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada starting Wednesday.
Manish Bapna, president and CEO of the NRDC Action Fund, the political arm of the Natural Resources Defense Council, called Harris and Walz “the winning ticket on climate. The Harris-Walz administration will be ready, on day one, to build on the strongest climate action ever and lead by example in the global fight against the existential challenge of our time.″
Walz has made Minnesota a national climate leader, Bapna said. Under his leadership, the state committed to 100% clean energy by 2040, and Minnesota was the first Midwestern state to adopt California’s strict tailpipe emissions standards. Walz also signed a bill last year directing $240 million to replace lead service water lines statewide.
“The stakes in this election couldn’t be higher nor the choice more clear. Trump would bow to billionaire oil and gas donors, slam climate progress into reverse and leave our kids to pay the price. Harris is a proven climate and justice leader with two decades of public service on the front lines of needed progress and change. She’s shown us what leadership looks like, and she’s earned the chance to lead,” Bapna said.
“The National LGBTQ Action Fund expected a strategic and bold choice as a strong addition to the ticket as a Vice-Presidential candidate,” Sayre E. Reece, vice president of the National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund, said Tuesday in a statement. “In Governor Walz we have gotten both.”
Reece continued: “Governor Walz has been a steadfast ally and advocate for the LGBTQ community, including support for trans affirming care, bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom and gun control. As Governor, Walz signed a ban on so-called ‘conversion therapy’ into law, ending the harmful and cruel practice that has cost LGBTQ people their dignity and their lives. Under Walz’s leadership, Minnesota is both a ‘trans sanctuary’ and immigration sanctuary state.”
The National LGBTQ Task Force Action Fund describes itself as lobbying for legislation and ballot initiatives that “achieve justice” for LGBTQ people.
A growing crowd of residents and news reporters gathered outside Walz’s residence in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Tuesday morning.
Black and white SUVs periodically pulled into the driveway as onlookers waited to catch a glimpse of Walz leaving the 20-room governor’s mansion near the Mississippi River.
Boarding his campaign plane Tuesday morning in Cincinnati for a swing through battleground states this week, Ohio Sen. JD Vance did not answer shouted questions about Harris picking Walz as her running mate.
On Tuesday, Vance was heading to Pennsylvania, where Harris planned to debut with her new running mate later in the day.
Donald Trump sent a fundraising email calling Walz “Dangerously Liberal” and saying he would “unleash HELL ON EARTH.”
Moments after Harris’ VP pick became public, the former president and Republican nominee said Walz would be the worst vice president in history, claiming the Minnesota governor would “light TRILLIONS of dollars on fire” and open U.S. borders to criminals.
“HE’S THAT BAD,” the email says.
A team of lawyers and political operatives led by former attorney general Eric Holder pored over documents and conducted interviews with potential vice presidential selections.
And Harris herself met with her three finalists on Sunday. She mulled the decision over Monday with top aides at the vice president’s residence in Washington and finalized it Tuesday morning.
Walz emerged as the choice.
Minnesota Democratic strategist Abu Amara says Walz will be a good surrogate for Harris across the upper Midwest, because he represented a rural U.S. House district but won statewide in a state with large metropolitan and suburban areas.
“He’s not trying to speak in poetry. He speaks in practicality,” Amara said. “That’s a level of accessibility for so many voters.”
“He has the ability to connect with rural, suburban and urban voters,” he said.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called it the “most left-wing ticket in American history” and accused Walz of not doing enough to protect Minnesota during the 2020 protests over the killing of George Floyd.
He said “Walz sat by and let Minneapolis burn.”
The campaign had already pulled down a planned stop in Savannah, Georgia, because of the weather.
But the Democratic presidential nominee will now no longer travel to Raleigh, North Carolina, either, according to the campaign. She was set to travel to Raleigh on Thursday.
Harris is launching a tour of battleground states on Tuesday evening, starting in Philadelphia.
Vice President Kamala Harris picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate on Tuesday. That’s according to three people who spoke to The Associated Press.
In choosing Walz, she’s turning to a Midwestern governor, military veteran and union supporter who helped enact an ambitious Democratic agenda for his state, including sweeping protections for abortion rights and generous aid to families. The people were not authorized to speak publicly about the choice and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
— Seung Min Kim, Zeke Miller and Colleen Long
Vice President Kamala Harris has decided on a running mate and an announcement is expected in the coming hours before the two appear together at a Philadelphia rally, according to three people familiar with her decision.
In recent days, she has zeroed in on a trio of potential finalists: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. It wasn’t clear yet who she picked.
The people were familiar with her plans but spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss a decision that had not been publicly announced.
Harris’ campaign planned to make the announcement via video message before the rally, though the exact timing remained unclear, according to a person involved in the planning who spoke on the condition of anonymity to detail discussions occurring behind closed doors.
— Seung Min Kim, Zeke Miller and Colleen Long
Vice President Kamala Harris formally secured the Democratic presidential nomination late Monday — becoming the first woman of color to lead a major party ticket.
Harris’ nomination became official after a five-day round of online balloting by Democratic National Convention delegates ended Monday night, with the party saying in a statement released just before midnight that 99% of delegates casting ballots had done so for Harris. It said it would next formally certify the vote before holding a celebratory roll call at the party’s convention later this month in Chicago.
Harris’ coronation as her party’s standard-bearer caps a tumultuous and frenetic period for Democrats prompted by President Joe Biden’s disastrous June debate performance.
As soon as Biden abruptly ended his candidacy, Harris and her team worked rapidly to secure backing from the 1,976 party delegates needed to clinch the nomination in a formal roll call vote. She reached that marker at warp speed, with an Associated Press survey of delegates nationwide showing she locked down the necessary commitments a mere 32 hours after Biden’s announcement.
