During her call Tuesday with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz , offering him the job as her running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris told him she believed them to be the underdogs in the race against former President Donald Trump . Until that moment, Walz had also widely been seen as the underdog in the race to be Harris’s vice presidential pick.
After interviewing three top contenders including Walz on Sunday, Harris was leaning toward picking the Minnesotan. Harris told her advisers while deliberating in the Naval Observatory that she liked her rapport with Walz during their interview and his executive experience as a two-term governor , according to a person close to the deliberations. Having done the job of vice president herself, she believed he checked her main requirements for the role, this person said: a vice president she could trust and one who would be a capable governing partner.
She told her advisers on the VP search, including Cedric Richmond, former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D., Nev.) and chief of staff Lorraine Voles, that she would sleep on it but she felt close to a decision.
Walz also made clear in the process that he had no intention of running for president, one of the people said.
Some close to Harris viewed Walz, a former high-school teacher and football coach, as similar to “Coach Taylor,” the main character in the popular TV show “Friday Night Lights.”
By Tuesday morning, Harris made it official . The move surprised many in her party who believed Gov. Josh Shapiro , a centrist with a high approval rating in the must-win state of Pennsylvania, to be the front-runner in the process. Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly also interviewed with Harris.
But Shapiro faced public pushback on a number of issues that some Democrats felt could prove a liability as the party was projecting unity following President Biden’s decision to drop out of the race.
Some on Harris’s team also privately voiced frustration with some of the public lobbying by Shapiro’s allies, including at a union event for Harris, according to a person familiar with her campaign’s thinking. Some Democrats also privately questioned if Shapiro would be well suited to serve in a supporting role.
A representative for Shapiro didn’t respond to a request for comment.
The governor’s support for private-school vouchers put him at odds with teachers unions. His handling of a sexual-harassment complaint against a longtime top aide came under fresh scrutiny. And pro-Palestinian activists, who since October have been protesting the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza, criticized Shapiro’s handling of pro-Palestinian protests in his state.
The criticism of his handling of pro-Palestinian protests sparked allegations of antisemitism from some Democrats, including several Jewish lawmakers, who argued Shapiro’s views on Israel were no different than those of other vice presidential contenders. Some said that Shapiro, who has been vocal about his Jewish identity, was being held to a different standard.
Pro-Palestinian activists cited several steps they said set Shapiro apart, such as his sharp criticism of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses and proposals he has supported to punish institutions that divest from Israel. During campus protests this year, Shapiro had decried incidents of antisemitism and suggested they should be tolerated no differently than if people were “dressed up in KKK outfits or KKK regalia.”
In his defense, Shapiro’s backers pointed to his public condemnation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and concerns about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. But some Democratic lawmakers and donors privately expressed concerns to people around Harris that Shapiro’s positions on Israel and the pro-Palestinian movement risked alienating voters who had sworn off Biden but were willing to give Harris a fresh look.
People close to the deliberations said advocacy from pro-Palestinian activists in the final days didn’t play much of a role in Harris’s decision. One of the people said the vice president is confident she can defend how she has handled the Gaza issue.
Republicans, including vice presidential nominee JD Vance , have accused Harris and Democrats of antisemitism in not selecting Shapiro. Harris’s husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, is Jewish and has taken a prominent role in the Biden administration’s efforts to combat antisemitism. Some of Trump’s rhetoric has been criticized as antisemitic .
While Walz has been generally supportive of Israel throughout his career, pro-Palestinian activists praised his sympathetic tone after tens of thousands of Minnesota voters cast their ballots as “uncommitted” in the state’s primary to protest the administration’s handling of the war.
Pro-Palestinian activists claimed victory in Walz’s selection.
“The choice of Walz over Shapiro cannot be divorced from the enormous momentum the Palestinian rights movement has built here in the U.S.,” said Ahmad Abuznaid, the executive director of U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights Action.
In a statement following Harris’s announcement, Shapiro said: “Vice President Kamala Harris has my enthusiastic support—and I know that Gov. Tim Walz is an exceptionally strong addition to the ticket who will help Kamala move our country forward.”
Some Democrats, including those working on tough down-ballot races, said though moderates had pushed for Shapiro, the recent criticism of him made him more of an unpredictable choice for Harris as opposed to Walz, who was increasingly becoming the so-called do-no-harm pick.
Harris’s advisers also believed that attacks on Walz as too progressive wouldn’t hurt the ticket because Republicans have already made an all-out effort to label the vice president as too liberal, according to people familiar with the matter. Walz, the people said, won a district as a member of the House that Trump carried and was effective in pushing back against those attacks in recent days.
When asked on CNN about his liberal record as governor, Walz responded: “What a monster! Kids are eating and having full bellies so they can go learn, and women are making their own healthcare decisions. And we’re a top-five business state and we also rank in the top three of happiness.”
Some campaign aides said the decision ultimately came down to a gut feeling of who would be a better fit. And although Walz isn’t from a battleground state, Harris’s allies came to believe he can appeal to the type of independent voters in states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin that the vice president needs help in targeting.
Hours ahead of their first joint rally at Temple University, Harris-Walz signs began popping up outside the venue—in Shapiro’s home state. “I love my job,” Shapiro told a cheering crowd before the Democratic ticket came on stage for the first time.
Write to Tarini Parti at tarini.parti@wsj.com and Sabrina Siddiqui at sabrina.siddiqui@wsj.com
