The ‘Blue Walz’: How a low-key Midwestern governor shot to the top to be Harris’ VP pick

 Philadelphia, PA

CNN

 — 

Tim Walz was in the midst of his interview with Vice President Kamala Harris’ vetting team when he told them there was something important they needed to know.

He doesn’t use a teleprompter, the Minnesota governor said. He doesn’t even have one, in fact. So if he was the pick, Walz said, Harris’ team would have to get him a teleprompter and teach him how to use it.

It was a lighter moment, but it was also part of an interview process with Harris’ team that Walz aced, multiple sources familiar with the meeting told CNN. The Minnesota governor was upfront about his vulnerabilities, noting he wasn’t from a swing state or a household name. He also said he was a bad debater.

But Walz made it clear he would be a team player.

Asked how he saw his role as VP, Walz said he would perform the job however Harris wanted him to. Asked if he wanted to be the last person in the room before Harris made a decision, Walz said only if she wanted him to be there.

And asked if he had ambitions to run for president himself one day, Walz said he did not, a point that sources said was not lost on a team looking to minimize the potential for any internal drama in a future Harris administration.

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The ‘Blue Walz’: How a low-key Midwestern governor shot to the top to be Harris’ VP pick

By Jamie Gangel, Edward-Isaac Dovere, Jeremy Herb, Jeff Zeleny and MJ Lee, CNN

 10 minute read

Updated 7:46 PM EDT, Tue August 6, 2024

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BLOOMINGTON, MINNESOTA - AUGUST 1: Minnesota Governor Tim Walz arrives to speak at a press conference regarding new gun legislation at City Hall on August 1, 2024 in Bloomington, Minnesota. Walz is thought to be on a short list of potential vice presidential running mates for Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

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Philadelphia, PA

CNN

 — 

Tim Walz was in the midst of his interview with Vice President Kamala Harris’ vetting team when he told them there was something important they needed to know.

He doesn’t use a teleprompter, the Minnesota governor said. He doesn’t even have one, in fact. So if he was the pick, Walz said, Harris’ team would have to get him a teleprompter and teach him how to use it.

It was a lighter moment, but it was also part of an interview process with Harris’ team that Walz aced, multiple sources familiar with the meeting told CNN. The Minnesota governor was upfront about his vulnerabilities, noting he wasn’t from a swing state or a household name. He also said he was a bad debater.

But Walz made it clear he would be a team player.

Asked how he saw his role as VP, Walz said he would perform the job however Harris wanted him to. Asked if he wanted to be the last person in the room before Harris made a decision, Walz said only if she wanted him to be there.

And asked if he had ambitions to run for president himself one day, Walz said he did not, a point that sources said was not lost on a team looking to minimize the potential for any internal drama in a future Harris administration.

“He had a very clear understanding that it was to be a partner, but to support the president, go out and connect with America and be that governing partner,” said Cedric Richmond, a former Louisiana congressman and Biden White House adviser who was deeply involved in the selection process. “It’s not the easiest of positions, but it’s a very important position.”

The vetting interview was a key step for Walz to ultimately lock up the selection that Harris made after sitting down with the three finalists, including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, for one-on-one interviews at her residence on Sunday.

“It was a home run,” said one source familiar with Walz’s meeting with Harris’ vetting team. “Everyone loved him.”

Beyond the personal chemistry Harris and her team felt toward Walz, people familiar with the interview process said that Walz was also someone Harris felt could attract the kinds of voters that Democrats have lost to Donald Trump— voters that Harris may not be able to connect with on her own.

“He hunts, he fishes, you want to have a beer with him,” said the source familiar with Walz’s meeting. “He will play in Michigan, Wisconsin, Western Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina.”

A longtime Democratic operative who has known Walz for years agreed, saying: “He talks and looks like a lot of the voters we’ve lost to Trump.”

By Tuesday, staffers at the Harris campaign headquarters were already joking about the “Blue Walz,” referencing the key midwestern battleground states that they hope he will help her lock up.

A walk-on player

Shapiro – who was favored by some of the Democratic Party and anti-Trump Republicans as a more moderate selection – did not go over as well with Harris’ team during his vetting interview, sources familiar with the process told CNN. While Walz came across as deferential and cooperative, Shapiro struck some as overly ambitious, with “a lot of questions” about what the role of the VP would be

And while Shapiro did “very well” in his in-person meeting with Harris on Sunday, multiple sources said, Walz was seen as a pick that would come with less drama and palace intrigue – both on the campaign trail and, if they win in November, at the White House.

“It was a striking contrast” between the two, said the source familiar with the meeting..

Walz was an unexpected contender to become the No. 2 on the Democratic ticket – he was hardly mentioned among the potential contenders when Joe Biden dropped out a little over two weeks ago. But sources familiar with the selection process described Walz as the walk-on player who was ultimately picked for the team over the five-star recruits because he was a Midwestern governor who can campaign as a natural on the stump as a fellow “happy warrior.”