By Nandita Bose and Jeff Mason
PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) -Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz will appear together for the first time on Tuesday as the Democratic Party’s White House ticket at the start of a multi-day tour of swing states they hope to win in November.
Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, and Walz, her pick for vice president, will hold a rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a state seen as critical to their ability to beat Republican rival Donald Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance, in what is expected to be a close election.
“I couldn’t be prouder to be on this ticket, and to help make Kamala Harris the next President of the United States,” Walz will say at the rally, according to excerpts of his remarks released by the campaign.
“These same values I learned on the family farm and tried to instill in my students, I took to Congress and the state capital, and now, Vice President Harris and I are running to take them to the White House,” he is expected to add.
Harris announced her choice of Walz earlier in the day, opting for a vice presidential running mate with executive experience, military service and a track record of winning over rural, white voters who have gravitated to Trump over the years.
“As a governor, a coach, a teacher and a veteran, he’s delivered for working families like his own,” Harris said in a statement released by her campaign.
Walz was elected to a Republican-leaning district in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006 and served 12 years before being elected governor of Minnesota in 2018 and again in 2022.
He has pushed a progressive agenda that includes free school meals, goals for tackling climate change, tax cuts for the middle class and expanded paid leave for workers.
Trump and Vance were quick to criticize the new competition as too liberal.
“This is the most Radical Left duo in American history,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
Vance knocked Walz for his handling of protests after George Floyd, a Black man, was killed in Minneapolis by a white police officer in 2020, with the Republican saying Walz was not assertive enough in combating the rioters.
“The biggest problem with the Tim Walz pick – it’s not Tim Walz himself. It’s what it says about Kamala Harris, that when given the opportunity she will bend the knee to the most radical elements of her party,” Vance told reporters in Philadelphia.
Americans typically focus on the person at the top of the ticket when choosing whom to vote for, but vice presidential candidates can help or hurt their running mates based on their backgrounds, home state popularity and ability to sway important constituencies or independent voters.
“She went with her gut on this one and chose the option that won’t alienate young folks,” said Republican strategist Rina Shah.
Walz beat out Pennsylvania’s popular governor, Josh Shapiro, for the No. 2 role. Shapiro has faced sharp criticism from the left, especially progressive groups and pro-Palestinian activists, over his support for Israel and his handling of college protests sparked by the war in Gaza.
Ahead of the Tuesday evening rally in his home state, Shapiro said in a statement that Harris had his “enthusiastic support” and called Walz “an exceptionally strong addition to the ticket.”
Some Trump advisers were glad Harris did not pick Shapiro because of concerns he could help deliver all-important Pennsylvania if he was on the ticket, one adviser said.
Harris and Walz will seek to build on the momentum that the vice president has sustained since becoming the Democratic Party’s standard bearer after President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign last month. Harris has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and reshaped the race against Trump.
The White House said Harris and Biden spoke before she announced her selection of Walz. The president also spoke to the Minnesota governor.
After their joint appearance in Philadelphia, Harris and Walz plan a multi-city tour of critical swing states including Wisconsin, Arizona and Nevada. Vance is doing a similar tour, with stops in Michigan and Wisconsin planned on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Jeff Mason; additional reporting by Andrea Shalal, Jarrett Renshaw, Steve Holland, Gram Slattery and Kat Stafford; writing by Jeff MasonEditing by Colleen Jenkins and Deepa Babington)