Kamala Harris revealed on August 6 that she has picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to run for the White House alongside her as prospective vice president.
Walz was reportedly on Harris' shortlist, along with Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly (D).
The vice president's choice has elicited a certain amount of head-scratching, even among left-leaning news outlets. Walz, who is hardly a moderate, doesn't balance out Harris's progressive philosophy, as Sen. Kelly perhaps would have done. Also, the choice of the Minnesota governor doesn't secure a state that's in play for both campaigns. Minnesota's Electoral College votes are probably already Harris’s for the taking, while both Pennsylvania and Arizona could go either way.
Walz, 60, was born in West Point, Nebraska. He represented Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District in the House of Representatives from 2006 until 2016 and became the governor of Minnesota in 2018
