Until Tuesday morning, it looked like Vice President Kamala Harris was going to help her chances of winning in those unpredictable swing states by choosing Pennsylvania’s popular governor, Josh Shapiro, to be her presumptive running mate.
Instead she chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a candidate whose liberal bona fides equal her own. The pick clearly was intended to mollify the left flank of her party.
In so doing, she has potentially handed Donald Trump and the Republican Party the greatest gift they could hope for at this stage of the campaign — a Democratic ticket without room for moderates.
Shapiro, considered the top contender as late as Monday night, is Jewish and staunchly pro-Israel. That made him an unfavorable selection for the vocal left, but he’s more aligned with the views of most Americans.
His selection would have moderated Harris’ pro-Palestinian inclinations.
Walz instead shares Harris’ sympathies; his selection should be viewed as a shift away from current administration policy on Israel.
Also Walz, unlike Shapiro, does not govern a swing state.
Pennsylvania will be crucial in the November election, and passing over Shapiro may make it less secure for Democrats.
Minnesota, while a political oddity, generally has been a progressive stronghold.
Under Walz’s watch, Minnesota was the epicenter of the George Floyd riots of 2020, which were punctuated by the destruction of swaths of Minneapolis.
The state government — again, with Walz at its helm — has also been implicated in a series of scandals, including a $250 million fraud scheme involving the use of federal pandemic relief funds.
Walz’s policy record on abortion — he signed a law codifying the right to obtain the procedure — and gender transitions is to the left of many in his own party.
His selection is telling, to say the least.
It’s also not without precedent.
Harris picking Walz is effectively the same as Trump picking Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.
The choice doubles down on Harris’s most extreme policy positions and indicates not only the direction she intends to take her party but her confidence in that course.
If Trump’s selection of Vance was propitiation of the populist right, the Walz pick is much the same for the left: a clarion call that the party is going to become a less and less comfortable place for the middle.
It’s a bold and risky move.
In an election cycle as unpredictable as this one, it’s hard to know what happens next.
But it seems like Trump and his campaign has been handed a gift. What they do with it is anyone’s guess.
Cynthia M. Allen is a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Her email address is cmallen@star-telegram.com
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