In Walz, Harris Sees a Battleground Strategy Dressed in Carhartt

Democrats think Gov. Tim Walz’s cultural ties are needed to talk to rural and working-class voters. But Republicans are not going to let his folksy style obscure a liberal record.

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President Biden, center, and Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, left, in Northfield, Minn., last year.

In selecting Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota as her running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris has picked a partner who is many things she is not: a product of small-town America. A union member known to campaign in a T-shirt and camo hat. A white guy who exudes Midwestern dad energy.

And, perhaps most important, a politician who has had to rely on the support of independent, or even Republican, voters to win elections.

Their pairing is somewhat predictable; a cardinal rule of vice-presidential selection is to construct the ticket with political balance in mind. But it is also a statement about what many Democrats believe is one of Ms. Harris’s key vulnerabilities: that she is perceived as too liberal, putting even the small slice of rural, working-class and moderate voters that she needs across Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan out of her reach.

Ms. Harris, a California Democrat, has never won an election as a solo candidate outside the liberal bastion of California, where races often hinge not on winning swing voters but on successfully navigating intraparty fights. That has left her with limited experience acquiring a political skill Mr. Walz honed over his nearly two decades in politics: talking to conservatives.

The great dream of Ms. Harris’s pick is that Mr. Walz’s brand of affable cultural politics can help broaden her appeal and win back some of the voters who have been fleeing the party for years.

In other words, Democrats hope that “Brat summer,” the lime green, pop-culture meme for Ms. Harris’s campaign, can translate into the kind of brat summer that evokes a staple of Midwest barbecues.

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