- Kamala Harris and her new vice president.
Multiple times, the words of Kamala Harris are drowned out by the noise. Thousands of spectators cheer, clap, and cheer around the 59-year-old. Again and again, her supporters start chants. The Democratic US presidential candidate beams. Even more so does the man standing slightly behind her: Tim Walz.
The governor of Minnesota was known to few outside his state until recently. But on this evening, he is the big star. Harris introduces the 60-year-old as her new vice-presidential candidate at a sports stadium in Philadelphia. Walz listens with a broad grin, repeatedly puts his hand on his heart, folds his hands in a gesture of thanks, and makes several bows.
In a down-to-earth manner
Then he delivers what Harris has engaged him for: straightforward messages with a Midwestern down-to-earth touch. About Harris' Republican opponent Donald Trump, Walz says that the crime rate in the USA has increased during his tenure, "and that's not even counting the crimes he himself has committed." The crowd cheers.
In turn, he thanks Harris for "bringing back the joy." Indeed, the Democrats have not been in such high spirits for a long time. And the party is making a conscious effort to approach its campaign with a new lightness.
Until Joe Biden withdrew from the presidential race, there was a gloomy atmosphere among the Democrats - alternating between hopelessness, resignation, and pure despair. Now Biden is gone, Harris is here - and the base feels a sense of renewal.
New "energy" and "enthusiasm"
"Until Biden withdrew, the mood was really low," says Ken Grimes, who came to the rally from a suburb of Philadelphia. "Now it's different. Everyone is excited." The mere prospect that the presidential race no longer seems entirely lost has put the party in great excitement within a few weeks. However, it is completely unclear whether Harris will ultimately be able to defeat Trump. The fact that the race against a convicted criminal who has been surrounded by scandals for years is so close should give the Democrats pause for thought.
But the people at the rally don't want to hear that. They are happy to have left the latest Biden crisis behind and talk about new "energy" and "enthusiasm" in the party - men, women, young, old, black, white alike. Suddenly, they say, the race is open again, and there is a chance that Harris, not Trump, will move into the White House - as the first woman in the history of the country, and as the first black woman to boot.
Harris is already a pioneer in the vice-presidential office in both respects. She can score more points with black voters, women, and young people than Trump. At the rally in Philadelphia, there are noticeably many women in the audience. But the former prosecutor from the West Coast state of California has a harder time with male white voters from the working class. And that's where Walz comes in - even if some spectators in Philadelphia admit that they didn't even know he existed until recently.
The Democrat was raised in the countryside, in a small town in the state of Nebraska, served in the military, was a part of the National Guard, later became a teacher and football coach, before transitioning into politics, first as a representative in the House of Representatives, and since 2019, he has been the Governor of Minnesota. Walz has a far less glamorous resume than others who were in the conversation for the vice-presidential spot. He doesn't come from one of the swing states, the most hotly contested and potentially decisive states, and has so far been little known on the national stage. However, he brings a lot of what Harris needs.
Walz is a white man from the Midwest who grew up in modest circumstances, down-to-earth, pragmatic, a hunter, and a gun owner. At the same time, he has liberal views, supports the right to abortion and free meals for students. He has strong support from the left wing of the party. Trump rails that it would be the "most radical-left duo in American history." However, the combination of Harris and Walz could also be too liberal for some in the Democratic base.
In the coming days, the two will embark on a whirlwind campaign tour through all the swing states. The stop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, will be the kickoff. Trump is sending his vice, J.D. Vance, to all those places in parallel to the Democratic duo as a counter-program.
Walz versus Vance
Walz is, in a way, what Harris has in Walz - a partner who grew up in simple circumstances in the countryside - as a link to the working class and those who are just getting by. However, unlike Walz, Vance did not become a teacher and football coach later on, but rather a financial investor with a law degree from the elite American university, Yale.
Walz uses this against him and jokes in Philadelphia: "Like all normal people I grew up with in the heartland, J.D. went to Yale, had his career funded by billionaires, and then wrote a bestseller bashing the people in his hometown." Laughter erupts in the hall again.
The new strategy against Trump
Walz has shaped the new strategy of not taking Trump and Vance too seriously. Trump often paints horror scenarios of the country's downfall under the leadership of "radical-left" Democrats like Harris - and now also Walz. They wanted to destroy the USA, passively watch a criminal invasion of migrants, and lead the United States into a third world war.
For a long time, the Democrats under Biden responded with similarly gloomy warnings, that Trump was an existential threat to democracy and world peace. But with Walz, there was a shift.
The unassuming man from Minnesota gradually changed the way the entire party talks about Trump in recent weeks. Walz is the inventor of the label "weird" for the former president - roughly translated as "strange," "odd," or "bizarre." Walz started with this in an interview, and gradually, all the prominent heads in the party picked up the slogan. In Philadelphia, Walz places his campaign punchline and says about Trump and Vance: "These guys are creepy, and yes, they're damn weird."
Now it has become a battle cry that also resonates through the hall: "He is a weirdo," the crowd roars about Trump (roughly translated as "He's a weirdo"). Not being taken seriously - that might particularly upset Trump. And it's an attack that's hard to counter. With Walz, there should be more of this from now on.
After introducing her vice-presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, in Philadelphia, Joe Biden expresses gratitude for the renewed spirit in the Democratic party. The base feels reinvigorated with Harris as the new candidate, leaving behind the gloom that once dominated their sentiment during Biden's tenure.
As Harris struggles to connect with male white voters from the working class, the role of Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, becomes increasingly important. Walz, a down-to-earth and pragmatic white man from the Midwest, provides a link to this demographic, balancing out Harris' appeal to other groups.
