PHILADELPHIA (CN) — With the veepstakes concluded and 91 days left before Election Day, the Kamala Harris presidential campaign is in full swing.
Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris took the stage in North Philadelphia on Tuesday evening alongside Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, marking the duo’s first public appearance since Walz was tapped to be Harris’ running mate hours earlier.
“Tim, he really does shine a light on a brighter future that we can build together,” Harris said of her new campaign partner. “In his state, he has been a model chief executive. And with his experience, let me tell you, he will be ready on day one.”
Walz thanked Harris for trusting him to be her running mate, promising he would have her back, both on the campaign trail and in the White House.
“Minnesota’s strength comes from our values — our commitment to working together, to seeing past our differences, to lending a helping hand,” he said. “These same values I learned on the family farm and tried to instill in my students, I took to Congress and the state capital.”
“And now, Vice President Harris and I are running to take them to the White House.”
The new Democratic duo also gave a glimpse into how they seek to brand themselves down the final campaign stretch. Both Harris and Walz repeatedly emphasized their middle-class backgrounds to the crowd, with Harris telling her supporters that strengthening the middle class would be her “defining goal” if elected president.
Continuing with an emphasis on the middle class, the pair contrasted themselves with former President and Republican nominee Donald Trump, who was born into a wealthy real-estate family.
“Donald Trump’s not fighting for you or your family,” Walz said. “He never sat at the kitchen table like the one I grew up at, wondering how we’re gonna pay the bills. He sat in his country club in Mar-a-Lago, wondering how he can cut taxes for his rich friends.”
Walz also mocked Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance, suggesting the senator’s everyman image is not rooted in reality.
“Like all regular people I grew up with in the heartland, J.D. studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and then wrote a best-seller trashing that community,” Walz said sarcastically.
“That’s not what Middle America is. And I gotta tell you, I can’t wait to debate the guy — if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up,” Walz added, alluding to viral but unfounded rumors that Vance had sexual relations with a sofa.
No hard feelings between veepstakes contestants
Almost immediately after taking the stage, Walz expressed strong praise for Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro — who reportedly was runner-up for Democratic running mate — to a thunderous Philadelphia crowd.
“What a treasure you have in Josh Shapiro,” Walz said. “Holy hell, can this guy bring the fire. This is a visionary leader.”
He added: “Also, everyone in America knows — when you need a bridge fixed, call that guy," noting the Shapiro-led 12-day rebuild of a collapsed Interstate 95 overpass in 2023.
Shapiro also spoke during the rally in support of Walz, describing him as “a dear friend.”
“Tim Walz is a great man,” Shapiro said. “Tim Walz is an outstanding governor. Tim Walz is a teacher. Tim Walz is a Guardsman. Tim Walz is a great patriot. I can’t wait for you — Philly, the rest of this commonwealth, and our entire country — to get the chance to know the Walzes as the next vice president and second lady.”
Vance hosts series of counter-events
Philadelphia marks the first stop on Harris and Walz’s five-day, seven-stop tour across the nation’s closest battleground states.
For much of that tour — Philadelphia included — Trump’s running mate intends to remain close by.
Vance held a media availability in South Philadelphia Tuesday afternoon, hours before Harris and Walz took the stage farther north.
He spent much of his time criticizing Walz, calling his political record a “joke” and referring to him as “one of the most far-left radicals in the entire United States government at any level.”
“If we remember the rioting in the summer of 2020, Tim Walz was the guy who let rioters burn down Minneapolis,” Vance said, criticizing Walz’ handling of the city’s unrest following the police killing of George Floyd.
“And then Kamala Harris was the one who bailed the rioters out of jail, so there’s an interesting team in that sense,” he added, referencing Harris’ promotion of the Minnesota Freedom Fund on X in June 2020. The nonprofit group pays cash bails and immigration bonds in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Vance is scheduled to continue tailing Harris during her cross-country event tour. Hours before Harris will hold rallies Wednesday in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Detroit, Michigan, Vance is set to hold media availabilities in Eau Claire and Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Vance was also scheduled to host an event immediately preceding a Harris rally near Raleigh, North Carolina, on Thursday, but both politicians canceled their visits due to potential weather issues relating to Tropical Storm Debby.
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