Republicans moved quickly Tuesday to try to define Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, whom Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen as her running mate.
“Kamala Harris just doubled-down on her radical vision for America by tapping another left-wing extremist as her VP nominee,” the narrator says in a new digital video from Donald Trump’s campaign that will be part of an upcoming ad buy.
The former president’s campaign, which has spent the last several days compiling opposition research on Walz, plans to attack him as someone who is more liberal than both Harris and President Joe Biden, with a key focus on his record as governor for the last four years, senior Trump campaign advisers and people close to the former president told CNN.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, responded to the pick Tuesday morning by saying it “highlights how radical Kamala Harris is.”
Trump’s advisers said that while they will pull on details from his 12 years in Congress, their goal is to paint Walz — a former teacher and Army National Guard veteran — as someone who has been in lockstep with progressives over the last four years and a key champion of the Biden administration’s policies.
“She found a 60-year-old White guy who has the same crazy ideas she does,” one of the advisers said. “With both (Harris) and Walz, you’re going to have multiple years of various records to go through, but the bottom line is, where has he been for the last four years? The last four years are what matter most.”
Key focal points in their expected attacks include arguing Walz has taken a liberal stance on the border, painting him as anti-gun and anti-cop, tying him to Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, linking him to the Biden administration’s economic policies, and questioning his record on foreign policy.
In Congress, Walz’s position on gun rights earned him backing from the National Rifle Association. But he’s since fallen out of favor with the gun lobby over his support for gun safety actions as governor.
The Trump campaign also plans to lean heavily into Harris’ decision not to pick Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, even as Trump’s advisers and many people close to the former president privately acknowledge they were more concerned about Shapiro being on the ticket given the importance of winning the battleground, the sources said.
Congressional Republicans moved to label Walz — who represented a conservative-leaning rural district in the House that, both before and after his tenure, has been mostly dominated by Republicans — as “radical.” In particular, they focused on Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ support for Walz and the governor’s handling of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.
“Kamala Harris’ selection of Tim Walz as her running mate confirms that the Democrat Party will anoint the most radical Far Left-wing ticket in history,” House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik declared in a statement.
“To the American people: If you had any doubt that Kamala Harris is deeply liberal, look no further than the fact that her VP pick was endorsed by Bernie Sanders,” South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said.
Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst echoed that message, calling Walz “Bernie Sanders’ choice for VP.”
