Date: 2025-08-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00027179
US POLITICS
TIM WALZ NAMED TO VICE PRESIDENCY
Tim Walz has said it is 'the honor of a lifetime' to join Kamala Harris's campaign
TIM WALZ NAMED TO VICE PRESIDENCY
Tim Walz has said it is 'the honor of a lifetime' to join Kamala Harris's campaign
Original article:
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
Peter Burgess
Tim Walz has said it is 'the honor of a lifetime' to join Kamala Harris's campaign Credit: Anthony Souffle/Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS/Alamy Live News
The Trump campaign has began attacking Minnesota governor Tim Walz, who Kamala Harris has selected as her running mate.
“TIM WALZ WILL UNLEASH HELL ON EARTH! He’s already pulling in MILLIONS to WIPE MAGA OUT,” said a fundraising message from Donald Trump shortly after the announcement.
Republicans called him a “West Coast wannabe” and a “dangerously liberal extremist”.
Mr Walz, 60, a straight-talking former teacher and National Guard officer, was elected to a Republican-leaning district in 2006 and served 12 years. He was later elected governor of Minnesota, where he pushed a progressive agenda that included free school meals, tackling climate change, tax cuts for the middle class and expanded paid leave for Minnesota workers.
Mr Walz has long advocated for women’s reproductive rights but also displayed a conservative bent while representing a rural district in the US House, defending agricultural interests and backing gun rights.
Formally announcing her selection on Instagram, Ms Harris wrote: “We are going to build a great partnership. We are going to build a great team. We are going to win this election.”
Mr Walz said the offer was the “honour of a lifetime”, adding that he is “all in”.
Follow all the latest updates below
Live Reporting by Harriet Barber and Iona Cleave
6 August 2024 • 6:26pm
6:47PM
Group founded by Republican women opposed to Trump support Walz
A group founded in June by current and former Republican women who oppose Donald Trump for president came out in favor of Tim Walz as Kamala Harris’ pick, in part for Mr Walz’s fiscal measures and policy accomplishments aimed at women.
“As Governor, he’s cut taxes for the middle class while balancing the budget, supported paid family leave so new mothers can be home to care for their children, expanded access to pre-kindergarten, and make sure that no Minnesotan child goes hungry at school,” a release from Women4U.S. states.
The group is a federal superPAC whose honorary advisers include former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, former New Hampshire Republican Chair Jennifer Horn and founding editor of The Weekly Standard, Bill Kristol.
6:26PM
Trump campaign attacks Walz as ‘left-wing extremist’ in new ad
The Trump campaign has released a new ad attacking Tim Walz as a “left-wing extremist”
“Kamala Harris just doubled down on her radical vision for America,” the ad’s narrator says. “Tim Walz will be a rubber stamp for Kamala’s dangerously liberal agenda, like allowing convicted felons to walk free, embracing anti-American green new deal policies, and giving up control of our southern bordes to criminal aliens and violent drug cartels.”
The ad concludes, “Kamala Harris and Tim Walz: they’re failed, weak and dangerously liberal.”