With Walz, Harris Passes on a Chance to Redefine Herself

A fewer days ago, Donald J. Trump said vice-presidential nominees person “virtually nary impact” electorally.

By selecting Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, arsenic her moving mate connected Tuesday, Kamala Harris enactment Mr. Trump 1 measurement person to being proved right.

A fewer days ago, it wasn’t truthful evident Mr. Trump’s assertion was connected harmless footing. While it’s existent that astir vice-presidential nominees don’t person a large impact, they often assistance the summons successful the vice-presidential nominee’s location state. The effect mightiness beryllium lone a percentage constituent oregon two, but Vice President Harris was considering an unusually beardown slate of options from cardinal states — and the polls are adjacent enough for 1 oregon 2 points to beryllium decisive.

In the end, she did not take idiosyncratic similar Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania oregon Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona. Instead, she selected idiosyncratic from Minnesota, which is not a top-tier battleground.

Looking back, possibly her determination shouldn’t beryllium surprising. Out of each the picks this period — JD Vance, Ms. Harris, Mike Pence, Tim Kaine, Paul Ryan, Joe Biden, Sarah Palin, John Edwards, Joe Lieberman, Dick Cheney — lone Mr. Kaine hailed from what was considered to beryllium a halfway battleground authorities astatine the time, Virginia. Instead, astir vice-presidential nominees are selected with different considerations successful mind, similar a tendency to bring equilibrium to the ticket, oregon to adhd a governing partner, unify a fractured enactment oregon assistance specify the statesmanlike campaigner — whether by reinforcing a candidate’s connection oregon by trying to defuse the opposition’s critique.

By astir of those different criteria, Mr. Walz is simply a precise emblematic selection. As a achromatic antheral from the agrarian heartland, helium brings equilibrium to a summons led by a nonwhite pistillate from the Bay Area. He is simply a well-liked governing partner, arsenic a erstwhile subordinate of the House and a politician successful his 2nd term. He’s a beauteous mainstream Democrat who avoids an intraparty combat implicit Gaza and lets Ms. Harris support riding the bully vibes of the past 2 weeks.