Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris tapped as her running mate last week, is headed to Boston Wednesday for a high-priced fundraiser.
A media advisory from the Harris campaign describes Walz’s Boston visit as the fourth stop on a six-event “national travel and fundraising blitz” that began Tuesday in California. Walz is also slated to visit Denver Wednesday before arriving in Massachusetts. He will conclude his swing with events Thursday in Newport, Rhode Island, and Southampton, New York.
While the advisory doesn’t specify the location of Walz’s Boston event, the Boston Globe reported that it will take place at the Newbury Boston Hotel in the Back Bay. According to both the Globe and State House News Service, suggested donations range from $25,000 to $100,000.
Massachusetts is known as a hotbed for deep-pocketed Democratic donors. According to the website Open Secrets, which tracks campaign-finance data, Massachusetts donors have already given more than $83 million to Democrats in the 2024 election cycle, the fourth-highest total of any state.
Peter Ubertaccio, a political scientist and vice president of academic affairs at Stonehill College, says Walz’s visit is a chance to both capitalize on that largesse and pave the way for on-the-ground campaign assistance as Election Day approaches.
“We ... live in the backyard of a really competitive purple state, and so Massachusetts Democrats have been known to go north and help New Hampshire Democrats organize on the ground to get out the vote,” Ubertaccio said.
“They also send their activists around the country,” he added. “Lots of people in Massachusetts will be organizing digitally, and then literally in places like Pennsylvania and North Carolina and other states around the country that the Harris-Walz team really needs to win.”
The Harris campaign did not respond to an inquiry from GBH News about projected attendance at the Boston fundraiser, but it seems likely to attract plenty of big-name Massachusetts Democrats. A political spokesperson for Gov. Maura Healey told GBH News that Healey “is excited to be a part of this event for her friend Tim Walz,” and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu recently said in an interview with WBUR that she plans to attend.
Recent polling shows that Walz’s popularity has increased since Harris picked him to be her running mate, in contrast to that of Ohio Sen. JD Vance, whose popularity has dropped since he was tapped as Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick.
Thus far, Ubertaccio argues, Walz has been a “huge asset” to the Democratic Party.
“They’ve been able to maintain excitement and electricity ever since [Harris] became the nominee,” Ubertaccio said. “And that’s likely going to continue through the [Democratic National Convention] next week, so you’re talking about a month of genuine enthusiasm. He has contributed to that.
”Vice presidential candidates tend to move things at the margins, at the extreme margins...in terms of moving votes,“ he added. ”People do ultimately cast their vote for a presidential candidate. but we live in a 50-50 country, and so the extreme margins of votes can make a pretty big difference.“
