‘A Hard Sell’: Kamala Harris’s VP Pick May Not Appeal To Middle America The Way She Hoped

Vice President Kamala Harris’s recruitment of Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota may not give the campaign the boost it is looking for in swaying middle American voters, political strategists told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Harris announced Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, and the campaign has since emphasized Walz’s background as a midwesterner, a veteran and a working class man. While Walz has made camo-clad appearances and been dubbed a “champion for America’s working families” by the campaign, political strategists told the Daily Caller News Foundation that his efforts won’t actually translate with blue collar voters. (RELATED: Harris VP Pick Greenlit Law Allowing State To Take Child Custody From Parents Who Oppose Sex-Change Surgeries)

“If you look at Walz and the media around him, he’s working on his car, he’s working on his farm, he’s holding a rifle with his bird dog with him,” Jon McHenry, GOP polling analyst and vice president at North Star Opinion Research, told the DCNF. “That imagery looks like it appeals to Midwestern, non-college working class voters. But when you look at his votes on the southern border and him being very accepting of illegal immigrants in Minnesota, those kinds of issues are going to be a hard sell for working class voters in the Midwest.”

Walz signed a bill into law in March 2023 that allowed illegal immigrants to obtain drivers licenses in the state. He also approved legislation that provided taxpayer funded healthcare and tuition for illegal immigrants, and in 2018 he announced support for “sanctuary” policies.