Washington [US], August 8: On the evening of August 6 (US time), US Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz held their first campaign rally in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) after the couple officially became the Democratic Party's candidates for the upcoming November election.
Hope and optimism
Supporters at the Philadelphia event said Harris's choice of a moderate had given fresh momentum to her bid to defeat her Republican rivals, former President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance, AFP reported.
"A lot of my friends and family are saying there's a new sense of hope and optimism," said Olivia Osborne, a rally attendee. At the event, Walz immediately criticized Trump as a selfish man who "sows chaos and division." "He's wrecked the economy and make no mistake: violent crime is up under Donald Trump. And that's not counting the crimes he's committed," Walz said.
As if introducing himself to a national audience, Mr. Walz talked about growing up in a small town in Nebraska, serving in the military, working as a teacher and later entering politics. He served as a U.S. representative for 12 years before taking office as governor of Minnesota in 2019.
Similarly, Ms. Harris's life story is also a tool to attract voters, as she was a prosecutor, a senator and then became the first female vice president in US history. Many prominent figures in the Democratic Party, including President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama, and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have expressed support for the Harris-Walz ticket. Meanwhile, Republicans are rushing to build Mr. Walz's image as a "far-left" figure and criticize him for not being decisive in dealing with the riots after the death of black man George Floyd at the hands of white police in 2020.
Harris's gamble?
Harris's choice of Walz over the popular Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was a surprise and a risky gamble. Despite his recent fame for using the word "weird" to describe Trump and his team, Walz is largely an unknown face to most Americans.
A new NPR/Marist poll found that 70 percent of registered voters had no opinion or had never heard of Walz, compared to 51 percent of Shapiro. When Trump picked Sen. JD Vance as his running mate in July, 41 percent of voters were new to him.
According to Axios, Republicans were happy that the person they feared most, Mr. Shapiro, was not selected. One of Mr. Trump's advisers told Reuters that Mr. Shapiro could have helped the Democrats win Pennsylvania, the most important swing state of the election, if he had been selected. Without Pennsylvania's 19 electoral votes, Ms. Harris would likely need a landslide victory in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin to win the election.
"He is a leader who will unite our country and move us forward, a fighter for the middle class, a patriot who - like me - believes in the extraordinary promise of America," Harris said.
Harris' campaign says it has raised more than $20 million since announcing Walz as her running mate. Polling also shows positive signs for Harris. Specifically, The Hill/Decision Desk HQ, an average of national polls, shows the two candidates nearly neck and neck, with 47.1% supporting Trump and 47% supporting Harris. When she first entered the race, Harris trailed Trump by more than 6 percentage points. Some other polls show the vice president leading Trump by 1-4 percentage points, but most of them are within the margin of error, according to The Guardian .
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper