Politics

‘A Hard Sell’: Kamala Harris’ VP Pick May Not Appeal To Middle America The Way She Hoped

Screenshot/YouTube/Associated Press

Vice President Kamala Harris’ recruitment of Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota may not give the campaign the boost it is looking for in swaying middle American voters, political strategists told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Harris announced Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, and the campaign has since emphasized Walz’s background as a midwesterner, a veteran and a working class man. While Walz has made camo-clad appearances and been dubbed a “champion for America’s working families” by the campaign, political strategists told the Daily Caller News Foundation that his efforts won’t actually translate with blue collar voters.

“If you look at Walz and the media around him, he’s working on his car, he’s working on his farm, he’s holding a rifle with his bird dog with him,” Jon McHenry, GOP polling analyst and vice president at North Star Opinion Research, told the DCNF. “That imagery looks like it appeals to Midwestern, non-college working class voters. But when you look at his votes on the southern border and him being very accepting of illegal immigrants in Minnesota, those kinds of issues are going to be a hard sell for working class voters in the Midwest.”

Walz signed a bill into law in March 2023 that allowed illegal immigrants to obtain drivers licenses in the state. He also approved legislation that provided taxpayer funded healthcare and tuition for illegal immigrants, and in 2018 he announced support for “sanctuary” policies.

Growing up, I learned to be generous toward my neighbors, compromise without compromising my values, and to work for the common good.@KamalaHarris and I both believe in that common good – in that fundamental promise of America. We’re ready to fight for it. And like she says:… pic.twitter.com/5SfrDRqx7C

— Tim Walz (@Tim_Walz) August 6, 2024

The Harris-Walz campaign has plastered their social media accounts with Walz’s comments knocking Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio for how he talks about his upbringing in rural Appalachia, saying he “profited off it” and “gutted middle America.” The campaign also released camouflage merch, and Walz has repeatedly talked about his background with firearms, both in the military and for hunting.

“It’s an interesting strategy,” McHenry told the DCNF. “Usually you think you would try to balance the ticket a little bit more ideologically, but that’s not where the heart of the Democratic Party is right now.”

Walz also issued an executive order that protected access to sex change procedures in the state, and he pushed to solidify Minnesota as an abortion “safe haven” following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. In 2023, the governor signed a law enshrining abortion into the state constitution, with no restrictions.

The results of Walz’s ’22 GOV race in MN don’t suggest he provides an obvious boost with the blue collar voters Dems have been shedding in WI/MI/PA: https://t.co/knKPzbd05E

— Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) August 6, 2024

“The kind of legislation he’s passing in Minnesota is particularly rougher on working class voters,” John McLaughlin, a Trump campaign pollster and CEO of McLaughlin & Associates, told the DCNF. “His plans to eliminate fossil fuels and growing utility costs are affecting the people in Minnesota a lot.”

In February 2023, Walz signed into law legislation demanding that all energy produced or acquired in Minnesota must be carbon-free by 2040, which is even more aggressive than California’s 2045 deadline. Walz’s climate record during his gubernatorial career has also landed him several endorsements from major environmental groups.

Walz was also governor during the 2020 riots that broke out in response to the death of George Floyd. Photos of riots in Minneapolis showed cars and buildings set on fire, while stores were looted and a police precinct damaged.

“I don’t think white working class Americans are typically radical socialists who want their cities burned to the ground,” Republican strategist Scott Jennings told the DCNF.

Walz’s wife on the 2020 riots in Minneapolis: “I could smell the burning tires. And that was a very real thing. And I kept the windows open for as long as I could because I felt like that was such a touchstone of what was happening.” pic.twitter.com/dAeE4fQjBn

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 6, 2024

Democratic strategist Dheeraj Chand told the DCNF that Harris may have miscalculated Walz’s candidacy in a different way.

“He’s not inauthentic, but he’s not working class,” Chand told the DCNF. “He’s very authentically a lower middle class person. It’s just that when you’re the kind of person who drives a Bentley, the difference between someone who drives a Toyota and someone who drives a Camry is not apparent to you.”

Democrats have historically been a party of “elites,” which may have contributed to their inability to understand the nuances of working, middle and lower class Americans, Chand claimed.

“The problem a lot of Democrats have is that, for better or for worse, we are very easily campaigned as being a party made of what you could call high caste individuals,” Chand told the DCNF. “It’s easy to point to Democrats and say, check this out. It’s a bunch of elites who do not care about anything but their own elitism. There’s a lot of truth to this, because many of those people really are Democrats.”

“But the genius of the Walz vote is that it eradicates those accusations,” Chand told the DCNF. “Nobody can look at a guy who drives a Toyota Camry and accuse this person of being any kind of elite. Nobody can look at a guy who went to a state school and accuse him of being some kind of nepotistic, credentialed person.”

The Harris-Walz campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Featured Image Credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Associated Press