Just hours before Kamala Harris introduced her running mate to the world, her staff had no idea who she was going to pick.
Her team prepared campaign posters that combined her name with those of all her top contenders to ensure they were covered when she made a decision.
On Tuesday morning, he picked up the phone to speak with President Joe Biden as he raced against time to make one of the most critical decisions of his political career.
In the end, and after an intense process of research with the main Democratic leaders, the “tender option” was decided upon.
The vice president waited until the last minute to choose progressive Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate to face Donald Trump and JD Vance in the November general election.
Kamala Harris waited until the last minute to name her vice presidential candidate
A source close to the candidate told DailyMail.com that she wanted “compatibility” on the Democratic ticket and a “partner” with little risk of overshadowing her.
Walz, 60 and a father of two, was the comfortable choice as a politician with a strong record in Republican areas and the backing of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was long considered the front-runner for her running mate, but concerns about his personal ambition and support for Israel may have tipped the scales against him.
Walz’s appointment as his running mate has sparked both celebration and concern among Democrats, with Republicans saying the opposition now has the “most left-wing ticket” in history.
The former professor is well-liked and has proven to be a winner in Republican areas. His description of Trump and Vance as “just weird” went viral and triggered a new line of Democratic attack in the campaign.
But some questioned why Harris didn’t join the other white man she was considering: Shapiro and his state’s 19 electoral votes.
As part of his decision-making process, he consulted with an array of party heavyweights: former President Barack Obama, campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon and former Attorney General Eric Holder, who managed the vetting process.
But his choice was also politically savvy: Walz is strong where he is weak.
He is a blue-collar figure with a rural background, a stark contrast to Harris, the first Black and South Asian vice president who hails from liberal San Francisco.
And while Harris appeals to young people and black voters, Walz appeals to the white working class and older voters.
He also has military experience from his time in the National Guard and, while in Congress, represented a district that Donald Trump won in the presidential election.
“Picking a rural Democrat who used to represent a Republican district with a progressive and populist record is a great way to balance a ticket with a candidate from Oakland, California,” said Democratic strategist Dan Pfieffer in X.
Harris was impressed by her “strong record of supporting middle-class families, her appeal to key Midwestern states, including winning a House seat in a Trump district,” a source familiar with the matter said.
When she called him – via video chat – to offer him the job, he told her they were the “underdogs,” a phrase he has used repeatedly during the election campaign.
And one strategist described Walz as the “soft option.”
“She went with maybe a little bit of a softer option, like someone that everyone feels is going to make everyone feel safe,” Jamal Simmons, Harris’ former communications director, said on CNN.
“It seems like the flip side of the Biden-Harris election, doesn’t it? They’re about the same age, but the governor has a little more gray hair and a little more of that Midwestern appeal.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz isn’t well-known statewide, polls show
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was also in the running to be the vice presidential candidate.
But there may have been other factors in her decision: primarily concerns that Shapiro, who has been compared to Obama in his campaign, would overshadow her.
The first maxim of a vice presidential candidate is to do no harm. Walz seems to be living up to it.
But Shapiro is a different story. While he may have pulled off a victory in Pennsylvania (a state both sides see as crucial to a victory in November), he also had his critics.
Among them is one of his home state senators: John Fetterman.
Fetterman conveyed to the Harris campaign his concerns that Shapiro was focused on his own personal ambitions above all else.
Shapiro’s allies, however, have said the criticism of the governor is anti-Semitic. Shapiro is Jewish.
He has also been one of the most outspoken critics of the pro-Palestinian protests that have erupted in the United States following the October 7 attacks on Israel.
His criticism led some liberals to warn against including him on the ticket. Many Democrats have expressed concern about the Biden administration’s staunch support for Israel.
Walz, by contrast, has expressed support for Israel but has pushed for more aid to the Palestinians. He has also proposed a ceasefire in Gaza and a two-state solution.
Everyone agrees that the choice shows how Harris makes decisions: Republicans argue that it shows her to be a bad decision-maker and Democrats consider her a smart choice.
There is some relief among Republicans that Harris did not choose Shapiro, and many Trump supporters are breathing a sigh of relief that the state is still in play.
They then quickly began attacking Walz, with some saying Harris chose the Democrats’ Bernie Sanders, painting the Minnesota governor as a shameless liberal.
And they may be right in some ways.
According to a Marist poll released Tuesday, Walz’s name has extremely low national recognition.
A whopping 71% of Americans say they “haven’t heard of” him and have no opinion of him.
JD Vance and Donald Trump are reportedly relieved that Harris chose Walz over Shapiro
But Walz also had some big-name Democrats on his side, most notably former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who played a major role in pushing Biden to drop out of the Democratic race.
He is known to be supportive of his former House colleagues and was fond of Walz when he was in Congress.
“Tim Walz is wonderful. She had a lot of good choices. I know Tim Walz very well. He was a member of the House of Representatives. To characterize him as a leftist is unrealistic. He’s not. He’s in the center. He’s a Democrat from the heart of America,” Pelosi told Morning Joe.