Tim Walz heads to Philadelphia to join Kamala Harris for first campaign rally as her running mate – live | US elections 2024

Here is where this eventful day in US politics stands so far:

• The Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, has selected Tim Walz as her running mate. Walz, the governor of Minnesota, and Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania, were reportedly the two finalists in Harris’s search for a running mate.

• Harris and Walz will soon appear at a campaign rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, marking their first joint event since the running mate announcement. After the Philadelphia rally, Harris and Walz are scheduled to appear at a series of events in battleground states across the country in the coming days.

• Harris said she chose Walz because of his “convictions on fighting for middle-class families”. “We are going to build a great partnership,” Harris said on Instagram. “We are going to build a great team. We are going to win this election.”

• Walz thanked Harris for “the honor of a lifetime” by choosing him. “I’m all in,” Walz said on X. “Vice President Harris is showing us the politics of what’s possible. It reminds me a bit of the first day of school. So, let’s get this done, folks!”

• Republicans attacked Walz as extreme, while Democrats praised him as a down-to-earth leader who can achieve change. “Tim Walz is a dangerously liberal extremist, and the Harris-Walz California dream is every American’s nightmare,” the Trump campaign said in a statement. But Nancy Pelosi, the former Democratic House speaker, rejected that characterization. “He’s right down the middle,” Pelosi told MSNBC. “He’s a heartland-of-America Democrat.”

• Meanwhile, Donald Trump will participate in a “major interview” with billionaire and X owner Elon Musk on Monday, the former president announced in a social media post. The announcement comes one week after Trump’s calamitous interview at the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists, where he questioned Kamala Harris’ race.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Lauren Gambino

Hello from the Liacouras Center at Temple University in Philadelphia, where Kamala Harris will debut the freshly formed Democratic ticket later this afternoon.

The line to enter wrapped around the university for blocks, and supporters braved a downpour and some sticky summer weather to get inside.

There was plenty of excitement among the crowd. Spotted on my way in: several students wearing chartreuse-colored “Kamala is Brat” shirts. Another woman wore a shirt with the play on words “About Madam time” to celebrate the possibility of sending the first woman to the White House.

Donald Trump will participate in a “major interview” with billionaire and X owner Elon Musk on Monday, the former president announced in a social media post.

“ON MONDAY NIGHT I’LL BE DOING A MAJOR INTERVIEW WITH ELON MUSK — Details to follow!” Trump wrote in a post shared to Truth Social.

The announcement comes one week after Trump’s calamitous interview at the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists, where he questioned Kamala Harris’ race.

The NABJ interview was initially supposed to be an hour long, but it ended after just 34 minutes, as the audience jeered many of Trump’s responses. He will likely face an easier audience with Musk.

Kamala Harris’s campaign has released a new video introducing Tim Walz to the country, as most Americans are not yet familiar with the Minnesota governor.

The video, which is narrated by Walz, recounts his upbringing in Nebraska and his decision to join the national guard before he became a teacher and eventually a lawmaker.

The video, as well as Walz’s scheduled campaign appearances in battleground states over the coming days, will provide many Americans with their first impression of Harris’s new running mate. A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll showed that only 13% of Americans knew enough about Walz to register an opinion of him.

Here is the full transcript of the video:

Sometimes life is as much about the lessons you learn as the lessons you teach.

Where I grew up, community was a way of life.

My high school class was 24 people.

I was related to half of them.

I learned to be generous toward my neighbors, compromise without compromising my values, and to work for the common good.

My dad was in the army, and with his encouragement, I joined the army national guard when I was 17. I served for 24 years.

I used my GI benefits to go to college and become a public school teacher.

I coached football and taught social studies for 20 years.

And I tried to teach my students what small-town Nebraska taught me: respect, compromise and service to country.

And so when I went into government, that’s what I carried with me. I worked with Republicans to pass an infrastructure bill. Cut taxes for working families. Signed paid leave into law. I codified abortion rights after Roe got overturned.

Because I go to work for the common good.

But enough about me.

Let’s talk about you. Because that’s what this election is about.

It’s about your future. It’s about your family.

And Vice-President Harris knows that. She too grew up in a middle-class family. She too goes to work every day, making sure families can not just get by but get ahead.

We believe in the promise of America. In those values I learned in Nebraska. And we’re ready to fight for them.

Because as Kamala Harris says: when we fight we win.

Rachel Leingang

Outside Tim Walz’s residence in St Paul, TV cameras lined the street, with reporters doing live shots to explain how their governor had been tapped as Kamala Harris’s running mate.

Earlier in the morning, some supporters gathered to send off Walz with cheers as a black SUV whisked him off to the vice-presidential campaign trail, the local CBS outlet reported.

Midday, people on their morning walks and bike rides slowed down, trying to figure out what was happening that required so many cameras. Some took photos of the house, with grins on their faces. A car drove by, honking excitedly at the people gathered.

Terryann Nash, who lives across the street from the residence, said she saw security details increasing in recent weeks and wondered what was going on. The residence Walz is staying at is not the state’s governor’s mansion, which is under construction, but a mansion that once housed the University of Minnesota’s president.

Nash, a teacher, was excited to see a fellow teacher on the ticket. “Even as a governor, he’s always come back to the schools. He’s always been in touch with the teachers. I feel like we’ve got a well-represented voice and a very good heart to send us off,” she said.

Tim Walz has left his residence in St Paul to make the trip to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he will appear alongside Kamala Harris at a campaign rally this evening.

The rally will mark Walz’s first official campaign appearance since Harris selected him as her running mate earlier today. Minnesotans gathered outside his residence to watch their governor depart.

After the Philadelphia rally, Harris and Walz are set to appear at a series of events in battleground states across the country – with stops planned in Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.

Sam Levine

Among the many progressive accomplishments of Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor has quite an impressive record on voting rights.

Ever since Democrats gained full control of the state legislature in 2022, Walz and his fellow Democrats have enacted virtually every reform championed by voting rights groups. This includes:

• Changing Minnesota law to allow people with a felony conviction to vote once they are released from prison (they previously had to complete probation and parole)

• Enacting automatic voter registration and allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote

• Allowing voters in Minnesota to sign up to automatically receive a mail-in ballot for each election

• Approving a state-level Voting Rights Act to protect the interests of minority voters

Read more about Walz’s record as governor:

Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance said he left a voicemail congratulating Tim Walz on his selection as Kamala Harris’s running mate.

“I actually called Tim Walz. I left a voicemail. I didn’t get him,” Vance told reporters.

“But I just said, look, congratulations. Look forward to a robust conversation. Enjoy the ride. And maybe he’ll call me back, maybe he won’t.”

Before Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, Harris had accepted an invitation from CBS News to debate Trump’s running mate in mid-August. But the timing and venue of a vice-presidential debate is now up in the air.

Joe Biden celebrated Kamala Harris’s selection of Tim Walz as her running mate, encouraging all Americans to rally behind the new Democratic nominee after he dropped out of the presidential race last month.

“I’ve known Tim Walz for nearly two decades, first during his time in Congress and as Governor,” Biden said on X.

“A husband and father, he’s been a school teacher and a high school football coach. He served for 24 years in the Army National Guard and became the highest ranking enlisted soldier to ever serve in Congress. As Governor, he’s been a strong, principled, and effective leader.”

Biden went on to say:

The Harris-Walz ticket will be a powerful voice for working people and America’s great middle class. They will be the strongest defenders of our personal freedoms and our democracy. And they will ensure that America continues to lead the world and play its role as the indispensable nation.

It’s time for all Democrats – and indeed all Americans – committed to freedom, democracy, and American leadership in the world to rally behind the Harris-Walz ticket.

Every generation of Americans faces a moment where they are asked to defend American democracy. That moment is now.