Tim Walz live updates: Kamala Harris introduces VP pick at Philadelphia rally

After talking about her campaign priorities—defending reproductive rights, ensuring middle class prosperity—Harris is now laying out Walz’s qualifications to be vice president.

“I set out to find a partner who can help build this brighter future,” Harris told the audience in Philadelphia. “A leader who will help unite our nation and move us forward. A fighter for the middle class. A patriot, who believes as I do, in the extraordinary promise of America.”

Kamala Harris just gave a special shoutout to Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro.

“I will say Josh is a dear, dear friend and an extraordinary leader,” she said. “He and I have been spending a lot of time together over the years. And I told Josh, look, I am so so invested in our friendship, in doing this together, because together with Josh Shapiro, we will win Pennsylvania.”

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have taken the stage.

Follow live for the latest news on this pivotal moment in the campaign.

Walz was governor when police in his state pinned Floyd to the ground by his neck for more than nine minutes, sparking massive, sometimes violent, protests and looting across the Minneapolis area and the country.

Republicans, predictably, have already seized on this moment in Walz’s history, painting him as another soft-on-crime liberal who lost control of their city.

“They make an interesting tag team, because of course, Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020,” JD Vance, Walz’s rival on the GOP ticket, told Fox News on Tuesday.

So, how did Tim Walz respond to Floyd’s death?

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz were in Philadelphia on Tuesday for their first campaign rally together.

Here’s what the scene looked like on the ground.

The governorship of Minnesota may have launched Tim Waltz onto the national stage – and now into a battle for the White House – but it was the former teacher’s wife who brought him to the Land of 10,000 Lakes in the first place.

Gwen Walz, nee Whipple, was born and raised in Minnesota before making a fateful foray after college into teaching across the border in Nebraska; there, she met another young educator and member of the Army National Guard. Tim Walz had grown up in West Point, a small Cornhusker enclave nearly 300 miles south of his future wife’s hometown, and already counted several years of military service under his belt when he decided to ask Gwen out.

Thanks to encouragement from her sister, she agreed; their first date at the only movie theater in town – followed by a stop at Hardee’s, naturally – soon blossomed into a romance, then a 1994 marriage. Exactly 30 years later, the two teachers and their two children now proudly hold the title of First Family of Minnesota — while throwing their hats in the ring for Second Family of America.

Sheila Flynn has more on the Midwest roots of Walz.

Josh Shapiro may’ve just been passed over for being Kamala Harris’s running mate, but he certainly doesn’t sound like it.

The Pennsylvania governor is in the middle of a pumped-up speech touting the campaign as one defending “real freedom.” He also called Tim Walz a “great patriot” and personal friend.

Shapiro argued on Tuesday that the Democrats are the right choice for their positions on reproductive freedom, investments in public education, environmentalism, LBGTQ+ issues and other topics.

“This election is about all of you, and whether or not you’re willing to do this hard work to fight for our freedom,” he said.

At the mere mention of JD Vance just now, the crowd just erupted into chants of, “He’s a weirdo.”

That’s more than likely because of Tim Walz, who memorably branded the Trump-Vance campaign “weirdos” in a series of widely seen TV appearances and speeches.

Learn more about the roots of this campaign dig.

Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro is speaking at today’s rally, and he walked out to a huge roar of applause.

“I want you to know I am going to continue to pour my heart and soul into serving you every single day and I’m going to be working my tail off to make sure we make Kamala Harris and Tim Walz the next leaders of the United States of America,” the Democrat told the crowd.

He praised Harris as “courtroom tough” and “battle-tested and ready to go.”

The Trump years, meanwhile, were marked with “more chaos” and “less freedom,” as well as declining abortion rights, Shapiro said.

How’s the Harris campaign going to introduce Tim Walz to the nation?

Today, we got our first peek.

Here’s a mini bio the campaign released talking about the Minnesota governor’s long career in public service.