Kamala Harris introduced her running mate, Tim Walz, as “the type of vice president America wants” at a raucous rally in Philadelphia that showed Democratic unity and enthusiasm for the party’s presidential candidate ahead of the November election.
Harris and Walz cast their campaign as a “fight for the future” and addressed thousands of battleground state voters wearing red, white and blue flashing bracelets at Temple University’s Liacoras Center, interrupted by applause and cheers in what the Harris campaign said was its largest crowd yet.
“Thank you for bringing the joy back,” a beaming Walz told Harris after introducing the little-known Minnesota governor for the first time as a former social studies teacher, high school football coach and National Guard veteran.
“I’ve got 91 days left,” he declared. “Oh my goodness, it’s that easy. I can just go to sleep when I’m dead.”
Harris, who served as vice president under former Vice President Joe Biden for three and a half years, said Walz will be “ready to go from day one” and called the contest between Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and J.D. Vance “a matchup between the varsity team and the JV team.”
Harris announced her choice of the 60-year-old governor as her running mate on Tuesday morning, hours after officially winning the Democratic nomination. Harris becomes the first woman of color to lead a major party’s slate of candidates. The governor’s selection caps one of the most tumultuous periods in American political history, which led Democrats to endorsing Biden for reelection last month in favor of his vice president.
Taking to the stage to Beyonce’s “Freedom,” the New Democratic candidate was building on weeks of momentum within the party that has been more upbeat and optimistic than usual.
“He’s the kind of person who inspires people to belong and to dream big,” Harris said. “That’s the kind of vice president he’ll be, and that’s the kind of president America wants.”
Walz further discussed his background, positioning himself as a politician who has learned to “compromise without compromising my values” and a Midwesterner who lives by the “golden rule” of “doing things for myself” when it comes to personal choices. Drawing a personal connection to one of the election cycle’s most heated issues, Walz said he and his wife were blessed with two children through in vitro fertilization (IVF) after struggling with infertility for years. “When we welcomed our daughter into the world, we named her Hope,” he said.
He then called his Republican opponents “wackos” in an attack that has resonated widely, especially among Democrats. “These people are creepy and, yeah, they’re just freaky as hell,” he said, drawing fresh cheers.
“I can’t wait to debate the guy, to be honest with you,” he said of Vance, adding a joke about the unfortunate meme, “but only if he’s willing to get up off the couch and show up.” It’s not clear yet whether there will be a vice presidential debate.
Positive reactions to Walz grew throughout the day, drawing warm support from across the ideological spectrum of the Democratic coalition, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quipping that the notoriously partisan divide showcased a “bewildering mess.”
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who worked with Walz during his six terms in Congress, praised him as a “Democrat from America’s heartland,” while independent Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia expressed confidence that Walz could “restore normalcy to the most chaotic political environment most of us have ever experienced.”
As Walz spoke on Tuesday, the Democratic campaign announced it had raised more than $20 million from grassroots donors, the largest sum since Harris’ rise to power.
Diane Harris, 59, of Philadelphia, said at the rally that she was among those who had made small donations to the campaign in recent days.
“This is hope, this is change, this is newness,” she said, exulting at the prospect of electing the first Black and South Asian woman president.
While Harris and Walz rallied supporters in Philadelphia, the Democratic nominee was also fighting off attacks from the right about the governor’s record of supporting liberal economic policies. The Trump campaign was quick to attack Harris’ running mate as a “dangerous liberal extremist,” pointing to her support for policies like reducing carbon emissions and expanding voting rights for convicted felons, and accusing her of trying to remake Minnesota in California’s progressive image.
“Waltz is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Caroline Leavitt said. “If Waltz won’t tell voters the truth, we will. Like Kamala Harris, Tim Walz is a dangerously liberal extremist, and Harris and Waltz’s California Dream is every American’s nightmare.”
Walz’s selection capped a lightning-fast vetting process that initially included nearly a dozen Democrats but narrowed it down to just three in the final days, along with Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Pennsylvania’s popular governor, Josh Shapiro, who was seen as the most likely candidates given the state’s importance.
Shapiro was greeted with thunderous applause from voters, some of whom said they had hoped to see him as vice president but were happy to have him at the governor’s mansion. “I love Philadelphia!” he said, placing his hand over his heart. “And you know what else I love? I love being your governor.”
Shapiro’s speech was a blistering attack on the Republican candidate, warning that the Supreme Court’s decision to grant the president broad immunity from prosecution would only further bolster Trump’s second term. Pointing out Philadelphia’s history as the birthplace of American democracy and the place where the Continental Congress declared independence from the British Crown, Shapiro asserted, “We’re not going back to the age of kings.”
Philadelphia Mayor Sherrelle Parker, who has publicly supported Shapiro’s ascension to the Democratic nomination, on Tuesday delivered a stern message to listless Democrats who would like to see Harris promoted to Pennsylvania governor instead of Walz.
“The Democratic candidate has spoken,” she told the rally. “This is it. This is it. End of story.”
Walz was an excellent choice in the eyes of Joseph Alston, 69, a Democratic committeeman from King of Prussia who attended the rally and, although he had not previously known the Minnesota governor, he thought Harris was wise to choose a running mate from a Midwestern state.
“I originally wanted Josh Shapiro, but we have Pennsylvania so it’s better for her to go outside of Pennsylvania,” he said, expressing confidence that the key battleground state, won by Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020, would deliver a victory for Democrats in 2024.
Several speakers repeated the “weird” comments popularized by Walz. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who served with Vance in the Senate, said he was “just here to confirm that he is a really weird guy.” At one point during Shapiro’s speech, the audience chanted “he’s a weird guy.”
Shapiro laughed and agreed: “Tim Waltz, in his beautiful Midwestern straight-talking way, describes J.D. Vance best: He’s a weirdo.”
Appearing in Philadelphia early Tuesday, Vance slammed the administration’s handling of the US-Mexico border and sought to shift the blame onto Harris, suggesting she could replace Walz as the vice presidential nominee because the party has already signaled it’s “willing to trick us a little bit” — a reference to Biden’s decision not to seek reelection.
Asked if he had anything in common with the Democratic governor, Vance listed one: “We’re both white guys from the Midwest.”
The Republican vice presidential nominee will accompany Harris and Walz around the country, holding dueling events at several stops along the way during a multi-day tour of battleground states.
At the rally, Kathleen Little, 77, a former board chairwoman for the housing group, said she was thrilled that Harris had chosen Walz.
“I was very impressed. He’s exactly who I hoped he would be,” said Little, who lives outside Scranton. “When I saw what he’d accomplished in Minnesota, the heartland of the United States, and all that we hope to achieve for our country, I thought he was just the guy for me.”
She praised investments in Head Start and the passage of gun safety measures, including universal background checks, saying they were part of an ambitious agenda that Harris might pursue as president. “Those are the kinds of things that Kamala has been committed to.”
Melissa Helman contributed reporting.
