On Politics: Five takeaways from Gov. Walz’s debut
Introducing Coach Walz: Five takeaways from Philadelphia
The campaign to defeat former President Donald Trump is going to be fun. That was the message from Vice President Kamala Harris and her new running mate, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, as they took the stage together for the first time in Philadelphia on Tuesday night. The glittering rally was intended to introduce a heretofore obscure Midwestern governor — and hype up Americans for the sprint to November. "So, we've got 91 days. My God, that's easy," Walz said during a zesty debut in which he marveled at the crowd, joyfully clasped his hands and went for the jugular, at least where Trump and his running mate were concerned. "We'll sleep when we're dead." The night was aimed at electrifying voters and banishing once and for all the doldrums that had gripped the Democratic Party during the doomed re-election effort of President Biden, who was not mentioned by either candidate. But it also highlighted some of the challenges Harris and Walz will face in a race that Trump is still favored to win. Here are five takeaways from a raucous night in Philly. Walz showed why Harris picked himIt was only this morning that the vice president called Walz, 60, and asked him to join her ticket. As he took the stage, it seemed as if he could not quite believe he was there. But after the two shared the spotlight for 50 minutes, their chemistry seemed obvious. "Thank you," Walz said, directly addressing Harris in the opening moment of his speech, "for bringing back the joy." Walz, who bowed toward Harris before beginning his speech, came off as delighted to speak on her behalf, with no reservations about playing second fiddle. His oratory never soared, but Harris reacted with obvious delight as he rattled off plain-spoken zingers. "In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and their personal choices that they make, even if we wouldn't make the same choice for ourselves," Walz said, as Harris cheered behind him. "There's a golden rule: Mind your own damn business." Walz went directly after Trump — and, yes, he went thereWalz rocketed from being a relative political unknown to a candidate for vice president on the strength of a single word: "weird." He used his speech on Tuesday night to go even further. Walz denounced Trump for his handling of Covid, the economy and crime. But he saved his harshest words for Trump's running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, whose background he sarcastically compared with his own. "Like all regular people I grew up with in the heartland, JD studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires and then wrote a best-seller trashing that community," Walz said. He added that he couldn't wait to debate Vance "if he's willing to get off the couch and show up." That last line was a cheeky reference to a false online rumor that could open Walz up to criticism at a moment when the Harris campaign is working hard to fight disinformation. Still, Walz seemed proud of the joke — "See what I did there!" — and Harris appeared to struggle to keep a straight face. But it's not clear that the (imaginary) couch will make another appearance on the campaign trail. That's 'Coach Walz' to youThe Harris campaign went into Tuesday night with one big challenge: turning a little-known Democrat into a star. They're going to do it by telling the story of Coach Walz. Harris went first, describing a man who had a small-town upbringing in Nebraska before becoming a high school teacher and a football coach who turned a winless team into state champions. Then, his students encouraged him to run for office. It's a remarkable tale that could be a "Friday Night Lights" plot, and the crowd loved it. Expect to hear the Harris campaign talk about Coach Walz lots more between now and November. The time spent on Walz's biography during the rally, though, was a reminder of how few Americans know it — and the campaign doesn't have a lot of time to explain it to the country. They sought to highlight Walz's bipartisan appealHarris is a California liberal whose political ascent never depended on conservative voters. On Tuesday, she and Walz made a point of telling voters that his had. Walz spoke of running in a congressional district "that had one Democrat since 1892." Harris described him as a hunter, a gun owner and the best marksman in Congress. And she sought to use him as evidence for a campaign she says is intended to reach Americans in red and blue states alike — although Republicans are already working overtime to depict him as too liberal for much of the country. We might have seen why Shapiro wasn't pickedGov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania was passed over for vice president, but one might be forgiven for thinking he was delivering his own campaign speech all the same. Shapiro took the stage with main-character energy that showed both how he has galvanized Pennsylvania Democrats — and how he might have struggled to be No. 2. He praised Walz as a great man and promised to deliver Pennsylvania for the ticket. As the crowd yelled, "Preach," and he spoke of his optimism about the nation's future, he seemed to be signaling that he wouldn't be leaving the national stage anytime soon. A short guide to pronouncing the name WalzIt's not waltz, like the dance. It's walls, as in the room dividers. As in, from the window to the … you get it. Two dudes who do the DewIn a bizarre twist of beverage fate, both the Republican and Democratic vice-presidential candidates prefer the same nonalcoholic refreshment: Diet Mountain Dew. Last month, Senator JD Vance told a much-mocked joke about how he worried that he might be accused of being racist for drinking the vivid green soft drink, and he has appeared in several video clips quaffing the stuff. It turns out that Gov. Tim Walz has also been doing the Diet Dew for years, noting in a 2018 newspaper profile that his beverage of choice is a bottomless supply of the soda. — Ken Bensinger
Trump's plan of attack on Walz: Cast him as a Bernie Sanders liberalFormer President Donald Trump's political operation had been preparing for Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania to be the vice-presidential pick, according to two people with direct knowledge of the internal planning. Then they revised their plan. . My colleagues Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman explain how Trump's team is looking to take on Walz. The Trump team's week-ago assumptions were evident on Tuesday at an event in Philadelphia held by Mr. Trump's running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio. Fliers describing Shapiro as a "fraud" and a "corrupt lying con man" were on hand before an aide hastily gathered them. By the evening, though, their approach to Walz was coming into focus. The Trump campaign plans to emphasize Walz's left-wing governing record — which made him a favorite of the Democratic Party's most progressive members, including Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont — to strengthen its framing of Harris as "dangerously liberal." The Trump team believes it will benefit from focusing on Walz's response in 2020 after protests over the killing of an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, in his state turned violent, according to two people briefed on the discussions. The governor was criticized as taking too long to send in the National Guard to quell the unrest, which damaged hundreds of businesses. Such an attack — which Trump allies were already spreading on social media — would fit into the Trump campaign's effort to take on Harris's record as a prosecutor in California and portray her as soft on criminals. Read past editions of the newsletter here. If you're enjoying what you're reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. Have feedback? Ideas for coverage? We'd love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.
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