In early August, NPR published a poll comparing the favorability ratings of three men widely considered frontrunners for Kamala Harris’s VP slot at the time: Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
The poll revealed that Walz had a lower overall favorability rating than both Kelly and Shapiro. His favorability rating and name recognition were consistently lower across all voter categories – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. For Harris, Walz would seem to have been the least attractive choice in terms of appealing to Independent or Republican voters.
Minnesota has not gone Republican in a presidential race since 1972, so there were no crucial electoral college votes that Walz could deliver from his home state that Harris wouldn’t already have. Meanwhile, Kelly and Shapiro hail from critical, almost must-win swing states.
It’s understandable if Harris’s choice to go with Walz left some observers scratching their heads. Typically, candidates play to the party base during the primaries and then move toward the center in the months leading up to the general election – a triangulation strategy perfected by Bill Clinton in the 1990s.
However, this election cycle, Democrats had no real primary, and Harris found herself in the unusual position of needing to shore up the disaffected left wing of her own party. Among many on the left, the Biden administration’s support for Israel in the Gaza war is deeply unpopular.
Walz offered this clear advantage in galvanizing the left: he is one of the most uncompromising progressives on the national stage today. Here’s an overview of the hard-core progressive track record that won Walz the VP nomination.
School Vouchers: Walz has adamantly opposed publicly funded vouchers for private schools. School vouchers enjoy cross-party support, with many progressives, particularly minorities, backing them as a solution for children trapped in failing schools. Shapiro, by contrast, has previously expressed openness to a voucher program aimed at low-income students. However, teachers unions – perhaps the most influential interest group aligned with the Democratic Party – have made vouchers a non-starter for any Democratic candidate on a presidential ticket.
Critical Race Theory: As governor, Walz ordered an overhaul of K-12 curriculum in Minnesota to implement ethnic studies standards that all students in the state would be required to study. One of the individuals he enlisted to help write the new curriculum standards is Brian Lozenski, a professor of multicultural education at Macalester College who has explicitly called for the “deconstruction” of the American system of government. In a video that has raised alarms among conservatives concerned about Walz’s influence on a potential Harris administration, Lozenski explained his agenda in this way:
The first tenet of critical race theory is that the United States as constructed is irreversibly racist. So if the nation-state as constructed is irreversibly racist, then it must be done with, it must be overthrown… You can’t be a critical race theorist and be pro-U.S. Okay, it is an anti-state theory that says, The United States needs to be deconstructed.
Abortion: Walz once said, “My record is so pro-choice, Nancy Pelosi asked me if I should tone it down.” A few months before Harris chose him as her running mate, they visited a Minnesota abortion clinic together – an unprecedented move for a sitting president or vice president. Walz’s record is distinguished by his support for a law that removed a decades-old requirement for medical providers to give life-saving care to infants who survive an abortion. Instead, the law he signed mandates only “comfort care” for the infant, rather than requiring life-saving efforts. According to a spokesperson for Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, “The law as it’s now written could allow a baby to be left to die, even a baby who could be saved with appropriate life-saving measures,” as reported by the Catholic Register.
Israel: As college campuses erupted in anti-Israel protests this year, many younger progressives have shown sympathy for Hamas in response to Israel’s counterattacks following the October 7, 2023, assault by Hamas. Some progressive leaders organized to oppose Shapiro’s candidacy for the VP slot, in large part due to his vocal support for Israel. Mark Kelly has resisted demands from the left to impose conditions on further aid to Israel. Walz has attempted to walk a finer line – condemning Hamas while voicing support for pro-Palestinian protesters, saying they are “speaking out for all the right reasons.” Addressing Muslim voters, Walz declared, “This war must end, and it must end now.”
Walz was chosen to bolster the Democratic ticket’s appeal to a wavering base on the left. The fear that young progressives, in particular, will stay home on election day is well-founded. Although Harris still has a substantial lead over Trump among young voters, there are signs that turnout among young progressives may fall short of 2020 levels.
Only 31% of young voters in battleground states said in a poll this summer that they felt better off than four years ago. In North Carolina, another crucial swing state, early voter turnout among young adults is down by 45,000 compared to this point in the 2020 election cycle. And only nine states have more 18-19-year-olds registered to vote now than in 2020. Nicholas Kristof published an op-ed in the New York Times practically begging young progressives to show up and vote and set aside their grievances related to the Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel.
Harris’s goal in choosing Walz was to motivate young progressives to show up at the polls, or at least to avoid turning off more of them. If early voter turnout and registration numbers are to be believed though, Walz, despite his progressive credentials, may have been too little, too late. In an extremely close election, her decision to appeal to the left rather than the middle with her VP may have been a strategic blunder.
Nevertheless, Harris once held the distinction of having the most liberal voting record in the Senate. If Harris does manage to win the White House, Walz will almost certainly become the most liberal vice president in U.S. history. In that sense, he and Harris make a fitting pair.
This article was originally published by RealClearPolicy and made available via RealClearWire.
