Kamala Harris introduced her running mate Tim Walz as “the kind of vice president America deserves” at a raucous rally in Philadelphia that showcased Democrats’ unity and enthusiasm for the party’s presidential ticket ahead of the November election.
Billing their campaign as a “fight for the future,” Harris and Walz were repeatedly interrupted by applause and cheers as they addressed thousands of swing-state voters wearing glittering red, white and blue bracelets at Temple University’s Liacouras Center — a crowd that Harris’ team said was the largest yet.
“Thank you for bringing back the joy,” a beaming Walz told Harris after introducing the little-known Minnesota governor as a former social studies teacher, high school football coach and National Guard veteran.
“We have 91 days,” he said. “My God, it’s easy. We’ll sleep when we’re dead.”
Harris, who served as Joe Biden’s vice president for three and a half years, said Walz would be “ready from day one” and called the race between them and the Republican presidential ticket of Donald Trump and J.D. Vance a “college versus junior college matchup.”
Harris announced the 60-year-old governor as her running mate Tuesday morning, hours after officially securing the Democratic nomination, becoming the first woman of color to lead a major party. With the governor’s selection, Democrats capped one of the wildest periods in American politics that led Biden to abandon his reelection bid and endorse his vice president last month.
Arriving on stage to the sound of Beyoncé’s Freedom, the new Democratic nominee rode a wave of momentum that has been building for weeks, emanating from a party that is unusually exuberant and eager to wait.
“He’s the kind of person who makes people feel like they belong and inspires them to dream big,” Harris said. “That’s the kind of vice president he’s going to be. And that’s the kind of president America deserves.”
Walz shared more details about his biography, introducing himself as a politician who learned to “compromise without compromising your values” and a Midwesterner who lives by the “golden rule” of personal choices: “Mind your own business.” Drawing a personal connection to one of the hottest issues of the election cycle, Walz said he and his wife had two children through in vitro fertilization (IVF) after years of struggling with infertility. “When we welcomed our daughter into the world, we named her Hope,” he said.
He then turned to his Republican opponents, calling them “weird,” in an attack that resonated widely, especially among Democrats. “These guys are creepy and, yeah, just weird,” he said, prompting another wave of cheers and cheers.
“I have to tell you, I’m looking forward to debating him,” he said of Vance, adding a joke about an unfortunate meme. “Provided he’s willing to get off the couch and run.” It’s not yet clear whether a vice presidential debate will happen.
The positive reception for Walz grew throughout the day, as he received warm endorsements that spanned the ideological spectrum of the Democratic coalition, leading Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to quipped that the notoriously divisive party displayed “disconcerting levels of diversity.”
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who worked with Walz during his six terms in the House, hailed him as a “Democrat from the heartland of America,” while Joe Manchin, the Democrat-turned-independent senator from West Virginia, expressed confidence that Walz could “bring normalcy to the most chaotic political environment most of us have ever seen.”
As Walz spoke Tuesday, the Democratic campaign said it had raised more than $20 million in grassroots donations, another colossal sum since Harris’ ascension.
Diane Harris, 59, of Philadelphia, said at the rally that she was among the small donors who had donated to the campaign in recent days.
“It’s hope, it’s change, it’s new,” she said, dancing with joy at the prospect of electing the first black and South Asian female president.
As Harris and Walz rallied supporters in Philadelphia, the new Democratic ticket also pushed back against right-wing attacks on the governor’s record of supporting liberal economic policies. Trump’s campaign immediately attacked Harris’ running mate as a “dangerous liberal extremist” who sought to remake Minnesota in the progressive image of California, highlighting his support for policies to reduce carbon emissions and expand voting rights for convicted felons.
“Tim Walz is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda everywhere,” said Karoline Leavitt, a Trump campaign spokeswoman. “If Tim Walz won’t tell voters the truth, we will: Like Kamala Harris, Tim Walz is a dangerously liberal extremist, and the Harris-Walz California dream is every American’s nightmare.”
Walz’s selection capped a lightning-fast selection process that initially included nearly a dozen Democrats but was whittled down in the final days to just three, including Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Josh Shapiro, the popular Pennsylvania governor seen as the most likely choice given the state’s importance.
Shapiro was greeted with thunderous applause from his constituents, many of whom said they would have loved to see him become vice president but were also happy to have him in the governor’s mansion. “I love you Philly!” he said, his hand on his heart. “And you know what else I love? I love being your governor.”
His speech was a blistering denunciation of the Republican ticket, warning that the Supreme Court’s decision to grant presidents broad immunity from prosecution would only embolden Trump to seek a second term. Invoking Philadelphia’s legacy as the cradle of American democracy, where the Continental Congress met to declare independence from the British crown, Shapiro thundered: “We will not go back to a king.”
Cherelle Parker, the Philadelphia mayor who has publicly advocated for Shapiro to be elected Democratic governor, sent a stern message Tuesday to any nostalgic Democrats who would like to see Harris elevated to Pennsylvania governor instead of Walz.
“Our Democratic candidate has spoken,” she said at the rally. “That’s it. Period. End of story.”
In the eyes of Joseph Alston, a 69-year-old Democratic committeeman from King of Prussia who attended the rally, Walz was an excellent choice. Although he didn’t know the Minnesota governor before, Alston thinks Harris was right to choose a running mate from a Midwestern state.
“Originally I wanted Josh Shapiro, but it’s better that she goes out of Pennsylvania because we have Pennsylvania under control,” he said, expressing confidence that the critical battleground that swung to Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020 would again benefit Democrats in 2024.
Several speakers echoed the phrase “weird” popularized by Walz. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania said he worked with Vance in the Senate and was “here to confirm that he is really weird.” At one point during Shapiro’s speech, the crowd began chanting, “He’s a weird guy.”
Shapiro laughed and agreed: “Tim Walz, with his beautiful, straight-talking, Midwestern way, summed up J.D. Vance best. He’s a weird guy.”
In an appearance in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Vance criticized the administration’s handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, attempting to shift the blame to Harris. He also suggested Harris could replace Walz as her running mate since the party had already shown a “willingness to give us a little drama” — a reference to Biden’s decision to end his reelection campaign.
Asked if he had anything in common with the Democratic governor, Vance cited one: “We’re white people from the Midwest.”
The Republican vice presidential nominee will follow Harris and Walz across the country, holding dueling events at several stops on their multi-day tour of key states.
At the rally, Kathleen Little, a 77-year-old retired director of a housing organization, said she was excited by Harris’ choice of Walz.
“I’m really impressed, and he was who I was hoping for,” said Little, who lives outside Scranton. “When I saw what he had accomplished in Minnesota, in the middle of the United States, with everything our nation hopes to accomplish … he was exactly what I needed.”
She praised his investment in Head Start and his adoption of gun safety measures, including universal background checks, citing them as part of the ambitious agenda Harris could pursue as president: “Those kinds of things are exactly what Kamala fought for.”
Melissa Hellmann contributed reporting
