Massachusetts’ Democrat-dominated political establishment is responding with palpable enthusiasm to Kamala Harris’s selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern told GBH News that he and his family became close with Walz and his family when the two men served together in the House, where Walz previously represented southern Minnesota. When Walz ran for governor, McGovern said, his wife and daughter traveled to Minnesota to campaign for him.
Prior to Harris’s announcement, McGovern said he had reached out to people in Harris’s circle to urge her to choose Walz.
“I’m thrilled that he’s going to be the vice presidential choice on the Democratic side,” McGovern said. “Look, he’s the real deal. He’s the salt of the earth. He calls them as he sees them, and he gets stuff done. ... [I’m] somebody who’s fought for many years to try to eliminate hunger in this country, [and] he was one of the first governors to champion universal free meals for every school kid in Minnesota. So he’s just a great pick.”
McGovern added that Walz — who is widely credited with originating the current Democratic attack line that Donald Trump, JD Vance and other Republicans are “weird” — has sharp political instincts.
“He says what most people are thinking,” McGovern said. “And when most people in this country saw JD Vance and Donald Trump present themselves [at the Republican National Convention] to the American people, it was weird, it was strange. That’s what everybody was thinking, and he just said it.”
Before Harris announced that she’d selected Walz, U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss had voiced concern about the selection process, arguing that another VP contender, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, was facing online criticism that had antisemitic undertones from what he describes as the “overly online left.”
But Auchincloss tells GBH News he doesn’t believe Harris heeded those voices in making her choice. He also calls Walz a “superb VP nominee.”
“This is a guy who — in the 1990s, in rural Minnesota — coached a football team in the high school where he taught to a state championship while simultaneously being the faculty mentor for the [school’s] gay-straight alliance,” Auchincloss said. “This is a guy who served for a quarter century in the U.S. military, becoming the highest-ranking enlisted soldier ever to serve in Congress.” (Walz served in the Army National Guard for 24 years.)
“He is beloved by veterans,” added Auchincloss, who is himself a veteran. “He is beloved by educators. He speaks plainly and substantively about issues that are personal and powerful to the American public like in vitro fertilization, like minimum wage, like the cost of housing. And that’s going to be a strong contrast to JD Vance, who’s out there talking about bringing us back to 1950s social policy and saying weird things about cats.”
At a public event Tuesday, Gov. Maura Healey also lavished praise on Walz.
“This is a dream ticket,” Healey said. “I’ve worked with Governor Walz. He is a great person. He’s a great American. He brings so much to the table. People are going to come to know Tim Walz, and they’re going to be really, really impressed.”
The Walz pick was also effusively praised on social media by U.S. Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Reps. Katherine Clark, Bill Keating, Richard Neal, Ayanna Pressley, and Lori Trahan.
Governor Tim Walz is a dealmaker and a dreamer, and I’ve had the privilege of knowing him since his days in Congress.
— Richard Neal (@NealForCongress) August 6, 2024
The Harris-Walz campaign is centered around the people, offering a vision of prosperity and possibility.
Let’s win this thing!
U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, who is also a veteran, wrote in an email statement to GBH News: “I love Tim Walz! He is a committed veteran, leader, and friend. A tireless advocate for our troops, he knows how to stand up for those who have been left behind — or simply not appreciated for all they do for America.”
Mass. GOP chair Amy Carnevale was less enthusiastic about Harris’s choice, saying in a statement to GBH News that the Walz pick signals Harris’s “shift toward radical progressivism.”
“This pick is not just a departure from moderate principles but an endorsement of policies that have driven people and businesses out of Minnesota,” Carnevale added. “As Harris attempts to distance herself from her own progressive past, her choice of Walz undermines that attempt and signals her commitment to a far-left agenda, which contrasts sharply with the needs of everyday Americans seeking stability and sensible governance.”
