Why Tim Walz is the Right Choice for VP

The Minnesota Governor is an unconventional pick, but he makes sense on the ticket.

The pick is in — Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. Her pick was a surprise. When the first list of potential contenders came out, almost no one thought Harris would pick the Minnesota governor. Walz is neither from a battleground state like Josh Shapiro or Mark Kelly nor seen as a rising star in the party like Pete Buttigieg.

No presidential candidate in history has made such a critical decision over such a compressed time frame. Nominees usually have months to develop a list, vet the candidates, and mull the decision. They do exhaustive research on every element of the prospects’ records and poll and focus group the various choices. The VP choice is always a leap of faith. You never know how someone will perform under the immense pressure and scrutiny of a presidential campaign. However, Harris and her team ran an impressive, leak-free process that allowed her campaign to announce the decision on their terms.

According to the report, Harris prioritized chemistry with her running mate over everything else. Who could blame her? She will work with this person closely for the next four to eight years. As a former member of Congress, two-term governor, and veteran, Walz passes the critical “readiness” test.

The political logic of the Walz pick is less obvious than with Shapiro and Kelly, the other two finalists. This is especially true with Shapiro, a very popular governor from the critical state of Pennsylvania. Harris likely has no path to the White House without Pennsylvania.

However, Kamala Harris’s choice tells us a lot about how she sees the campaign against Trump. There wasn’t a bad option on the list, but Walz is a particularly good choice. Here’s why:

1. Playing Chess, Not Checkers

The arguments for Shapiro and Kelly were clear. They could help deliver critical states. Walz is from Minnesota. And Republicans were making noise about Minnesota a few weeks ago when President Biden was in the race. Polling since Harris became the nominee suggests that Minnesota is no longer up for grabs. If she has to fight to hold on to Minnesota, she is toast in similar states like Michigan and Wisconsin. Shapiro could have given her a slight boost in Pennsylvania. The home state boost from the VP pick is dramatically overstated, but it is real — most estimate about a point or two. Pennsylvania was decided by less than a point in the last two presidential elections.

I have been a huge fan of Josh Shapiro since 2008.Like Kamala Harris, he became an early endorser of Barack Obama when most of the party establishment backed Hillary Clinton. I would not be surprised if he were President one day.

In picking Walz, Kamala Harris looked at something broader than winning one state. She sought a running mate to help her in all seven battleground states. Winning Pennsylvania alone is not enough to get to the White House. Presidential politics is more chess than checkers, and choosing Walz is evidence that Kamala Harris is looking at the whole board.

2. Adding a Midwestern, Rural Democrat to the Ticket Makes Sense

Tim Walz represented a rural Republican district in Congress for years. He somehow survived the Republican landslide of 2010.