Harris and Walz to head to Wisconsin and Michigan
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are off to Eau Claire in Wisconsin, and Detroit, Michigan, on Wednesday to continue their battleground tour after a raucous debut of the Minnesota governor in Philadelphia.
The rally in Wisconsin is due to start at 12pm CT and the vice-president and Walz will be joined by Wisconsin’s governor Tony Evers, senator Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin secretary of state Sarah Godlewski, and others.
Indie folk band Bon Iver, who have their roots in Eau Claire, will perform at the rally before Harris and Walz are due to address the crowd around 1.25pm CT.
Key events
Analysis: why Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz
Chris Stein
Walz emerged as Harris’s pick after a search lasting two weeks that saw the vice-president also consider a group that included the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, and Arizona senator Mark Kelly. The choice of Walz drew praise from across the Democratic party’s ideological spectrum.
The progressive congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Harris made an “excellent decision”, while Joe Manchin, the West Virginia senator who recently left the party and is best known for hamstringing Biden’s proposals to fight child poverty and more aggressively combat climate change, said: “I can think of no one better than Governor Walz to help bring our country closer together and bring balance back to the Democratic party.”
Republicans responded to Walz’s selection by posting on social media images of the protests the rocked Minneapolis four years ago after George Floyd’s murder, reminders of the governor’s support for a law allowing undocumented migrants to obtain driver’s licenses, plus a massive Covid relief scandal that took place during his administration.
Now in his second term as governor, the former congressman and high school teacher brings to the ticket a record of progressive policymaking, a somewhat sympathetic view towards pro-Palestine protesters, and a distinctly Minnesotan style of communication the campaign could use in its efforts to win the nearby swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Here’s the full analysis from my colleague Chris Stein:
Our Revolution, a grassroots US progressive political organization founded by Bernie Sanders, condemned the outcome of Cori Bush’s Democratic primary.
Joseph Geevarghese, spokesperson for the group, said Democratic party leaders failed to support Bush against a “barrage of racist attacks and millions of dollars” being spent to unseat her.
Geevarghese said in a statement: “Cori Bush had the moral courage to speak out against her constituents’ taxpayer dollars funding war crimes in Gaza. As a result, Aipac and its Maga Republican-funded super Pac spent more than $8.4m to buy her congressional seat.
“Democratic party elites have spent years decrying Trump as an existential threat to democracy, yet they are resoundingly silent when wealthy conservative donors unseat a true working-class champion who was among the first federal lawmakers to endorse Kamala Harris in her historic candidacy for president.”
Progressive congresswoman Cori Bush loses primary after pro-Israel campaign against her
Chris McGreal
The other big news late on Wednesday was congresswoman Cori Bush losing her Democratic primary after pro-Israel pressure groups spent millions of dollars to unseat her over criticisms of Israel’s war on Gaza.
St Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell defeated Missouri’s first Black female member of Congress with about 51% of the vote. Bush, a member of the progressive “Squad”, took about 46%.
Bell’s win marks a second major victory for the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) after it played a leading role in unseating New York congressman Jamaal Bowman, another progressive Democrat who criticized the scale of Palestinian civilians deaths in Gaza, in a June primary.
Aipac pumped $8.5m into the race in Missouri’s first congressional district to support Bell through its campaign funding arm, the United Democracy Project (UDP), after Bush angered some pro-Israel groups as one of the first members of Congress to call for a ceasefire after the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel.
Kamala Harris is drawing more support from Black voters than Joe Biden did, while Donald Trump’s support among white voters has risen somewhat in recent months, according to an analysis of Reuters/Ipsos polling.
The analysis, which examined more than 10,000 responses from seven nationwide Reuters/Ipsos polls conducted since May, says about 70% of Black voters polled in July picked Harris over Trump on a hypothetical ballot, up from 59% who backed Biden in May and June polls. Trump’s share of the Black vote rose marginally to 12% in July from 9% in May and June.
Trump, meanwhile, is seeing increased support from white voters. Some 50% picked Trump in July polls, up from 46% in May and June. Harris had the support of 38% of white voters in July, compared to 36% in May and June.
The race remains essentially tied, with Harris and Trump each getting 43% support in an aggregate of last month’s polls. Biden and Trump each had 40% in the polls conducted in the previous two months.
The analysis examined poll responses gathered throughout July on a hypothetical Harris-Trump contest and included responses from before Biden, 81, ended his bid. All responses on Harris, however, were gathered after Biden’s 27 June debate against Trump, when the president’s faltering performance led Democrats to call on him to end his campaign.
White voters make up the biggest racial bloc, accounting for 72% of all voters in the 2020 election, according to the Pew Research Center, though their share of the electorate has dropped sharply in recent decades.
African Americans accounted for only 11% of voters that year. But they are a critical component of the Democratic Party’s coalition and could play an outsized role in this year’s election.
Black voters in Georgia, for example, propelled Biden to victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election. But a surge in the cost of living and what they see as a lack of progress on racial justice issues has prompted disillusionment in some quarters.
Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, was meant to campaign in North Carolina on Wednesday.
But severe weather forced the campaign to cancel the events in Raleigh and Oakboro.
Heavy rain was forecast as Tropical Storm Debby pushes into the state. The Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, declared a state of emergency on Monday.
After Wisconsin, Harris and Walz fly off to Michigan, for an evening rally at Wayne county airport.
They will be joined by Democratic party officials, several congressmen and women as well as Detroit mayor Mike Duggan, senator Debbie Stabenow, and governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Shawn Fain, the influential president of the United Autoworkers Union, will be there too, after his union endorsed Harris last week. Harris and Walz are expected to speak at 7pm ET.
Harris and Walz to head to Wisconsin and Michigan
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are off to Eau Claire in Wisconsin, and Detroit, Michigan, on Wednesday to continue their battleground tour after a raucous debut of the Minnesota governor in Philadelphia.
The rally in Wisconsin is due to start at 12pm CT and the vice-president and Walz will be joined by Wisconsin’s governor Tony Evers, senator Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin secretary of state Sarah Godlewski, and others.
Indie folk band Bon Iver, who have their roots in Eau Claire, will perform at the rally before Harris and Walz are due to address the crowd around 1.25pm CT.
Walz’s name has left some people confused as to how to pronounce it.
Is it “Waltz”, as in the dance, or “Walls”, as in the things that hold up roofs, or even “Wal-tz” as in Walmart? Turns out it’s “Waalls”, as in “Walls” but with a slightly longer “a”. He says it that way himself.
Minnesota news site MPR news has this handy video explainer:
Cheat sheet: 10 things to know about Tim Walz
Martin Pengelly
Tim Walz came from relative obscurity to seize the glittering prize of becoming Kamala Harris’s running mate. So who is he and what should you know about him?
Martin Pengelly has this handy cheat sheet to help you learn more about the Minnesota governor:
The coach v the couch: key takeaways from the first Harris-Walz rally
Helen Sullivan
Kamala Harris introduced her running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, to supporters at a packed, energetic rally at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Harris sought to define Walz foremost as a teacher, veteran and football coach.
Walz focused on a unifying, future-focused message, and attacked the Trump-Vance ticket with a focus on reproductive rights and other freedoms.
Meanwhile Josh Shapiro, who had been a vice-presidential contender, still made his mark.
Read the key takeaways here.
Here are some images from the Harris/Walz campaign rally in Philadelphia last night.
Kamala Harris introduces running mate Tim Walz at raucous Philadelphia rally
Lauren Gambino
Kamala Harris introduced her running mate Tim Walz as “the kind of vice-president America deserves” at a raucous rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday that showcased Democratic unity and enthusiasm for the party’s presidential ticket ahead of the November election.
Casting their campaign as a “fight for the future”, Harris and Walz were repeatedly interrupted by applause and cheering as they addressed thousands of battleground-state voters wearing bracelets that twinkled red, white and blue at Temple University’s Liacouras Center – a crowd Harris’s team said was its largest to date.
“Thank you for bringing back the joy,” a beaming Walz told Harris after she debuted the little-known Minnesota governor as a former social studies teacher, high school football coach and a National Guard veteran.
“We’ve got 91 days,” he declared. “My God, that’s easy. We’ll sleep when we’re dead.”
Read the full story here.
