The election of Vice President Kamala Harris as governor of Minnesota. Tim Walz As his running mate suggests, Harris is prone to the idea that the Democrats are the party of the normal and the Republicans are the weirdos.
Walz has been calling Republicans “weird” since at least last year, and in recent weeks has made it something of a rallying cry for his party.
“Nobody can imagine them in their own lives,” Walz said in one of several recent TV appearances. “You will never see this man [Donald Trump] laugh. You never see him doing these ordinary things.”
Walz then described throwing a Frisbee at his dog and scratching its belly when he came home from work at night.
“Imagine these guys doing things like that. They just can’t,” he said. “And it gives us a chance to hear where you’re coming from.”
A beacon as unrestrained as the West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin ― who left the Democratic Party this year because he said it had become too extreme, praised Walz’s selection on Tuesday.
“My friend Governor Tim Walz is bringing normalcy back to the most chaotic political environment most of us have ever seen,” Manchin said in a statement from his office. “I can think of no one better than Governor Walz to help bring our country together and restore balance to the Democratic Party.”
Walz’s selection also provides a stark contrast to former President Donald Trump’s nominee, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), who has been a prime target of “outlandish” attacks by Democrats. He has berated him for criticizing 2021. Democrats as “childless cat ladies” who are unhappy because they don’t have children.
In its announcement, the Harris campaign highlighted his background as a high school teacher and member of the Army National Guard — as well as his and his wife’s struggles to have children.
“Governor and Mrs. Walz struggled with fertility challenges for years while their daughter Hope used reproductive health care such as IVF, further strengthening her commitment to making sure all Americans have access to this treatment,” Harris’ campaign said in a press release.
Walz told HuffPost in February during a visit to Washington as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association that he believed reproductive health policy would be “fundamental” in the 2024 election. At the time, Alabama’s Supreme Court had recently declared human embryos to be human beings, putting IVF treatment in the state at risk in a decision that came as the U.S. Supreme Court struck down federal abortion rights in 2022. Walz said he knew from experience why people would care.
“My wife and I used reproductive services at the Mayo Clinic, and my daughter Hope was named Hope for a reason,” Walz said. “Because married for eight years, no children, want children. We got Hope because of these types of things.”
Vance has emphasized that he never intended to criticize people who want to have children but can’t, and Trump, along with most (but not all) Republicans nationally, have said they support IVF, even when it seems contradictory. they support the concept of fetal personhood because embryos are often destroyed in the process. However, Vance and other Republican senators voted against a Democratic bill to guarantee access to IVF, saying it was unnecessary.
Last week, when Walz was essentially auditioning for the vice-presidential post, Walz blasted Vance about people’s family choices and linked the cat lady comment to Republican positions on reproductive health care.
“The golden rule that makes small towns work so we’re not at each other’s throats all the time in a small town is mind your own business,” Walz said on MSNBC. “I don’t need him to tell me about my family. I don’t need to be told about my wife’s health care and her reproductive rights.”
