• USA POLITICAL ELECTION

Washington, Aug 6 (EFE).-

Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee for the United States presidential election, on Tuesday named Tim Walz as her running mate, according to US media reports.

Walz, the current Minnesota governor, will appear with Harris for the first time in public on Tuesday afternoon at a campaign rally in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), where they will kick off a tour of the country’s so-called “swing” states, which are key to securing a path to the White House.

The former high school teacher and American football coach will become US vice president if Harris beats Republican candidate and former US president Donald Trump in November.

Walz, 60, who has governed Minnesota since 2019, a post to which he was re-elected in 2022, was considered the most progressive of the three contenders for Harris’ running mate.

She interviewed Walz, Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro, and Arizona senator Mark Kelly at her official Washington residence on Sunday.

Walz was not in the early running but he emerged as a contender after several strong public appearances, including one in which he called Republican rivals Trump and JD Vance “weirdos.”

More left-leaning than Harris, Walz could appeal to working class voters in the Midwest industrial belt.

But he was criticized for delaying the deployment of the National Guard during protests following the murder by police of African American man George Floyd in 2020.

Born in Nebraska in 1964, he served in the National Guard and was a school teacher where he met his wife, Gwen Wipple, with whom he later moved to Minnesota.

There, he was a geography teacher and high school American football coach, leading his team to the 1999 state championship.

He made the transition to politics in 2006 when he was elected congressman for Minnesota in the US House of Representatives, a position he held until he became governor. EFE

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