'What JD Vance pretends to be': GOP strategist says Walz is 'a walking John Mellencamp song'

06 August 2024

After Vice President Kamala Harris announced two-term Minnesota Democratic Governor Tim Walz as her 2024 running mate, one veteran Republican strategist praised the pick as politically savvy.

In a Tuesday segment for MSNBC, Stuart Stevens — who was a top strategist for 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's campaign — argued that Walz was the perfect compliment to Harris. He noted that both Harris and Walz have "very American" upbringings and widespread appeal to Americans of all backgrounds.

"I think a lot of politics is about sort of narrative arcs these days. What sort of movie are we going to watch here?" Stevens said. "You have her, daughter of immigrants. Come to America. Rise to this level. He's a small town guy, like a walking John Mellencamp song. As [former U.S. Senator] Claire McCaskill said earlier, he is what JD Vance pretends to be."

Stevens explained that Harris and Walz both have "compelling narratives" as candidates. Harris is the daughter of a Black father and an Indian mother (who in turn encouraged Harris to embrace her identity as a Black woman) who graduated from Howard University, —which is a storied historically Black institution — and pledged Alpha Kappa Alpha, which is a celebrated Black sorority.

Harris eventually passed the bar and became San Francisco's district attorney, and was elected as California's first woman, Black, and Asian Attorney General in state history. And after being elected to two terms in the U.S. Senate, President Joe Biden selected her to become the first female, Black and Asian vice president in U.S. history.

Walz, meanwhile, served in the national guard for two decades, eventually attaining the rank of command sergeant major — the most senior member of a battalion. He was also a public school teacher who eventually ran for Congress and then the governorship. In 1999, he even coached Mankato West High School to its first state championship.

"Everybody knows a high school football coach. Everybody knows somebody who taught geography or history in high school. He becomes a congressman, becomes a governor. That's something you can grasp," Stevens said. "And combine it with the power of the first woman president, woman of color. I think that the combination of the two has much more power than each taken by itself. So I consider it a big plus for the campaign."

As a longtime congressman and eight-year governor of the Gopher State, Walz also has regional appeal to Midwestern voters. This could help Democrats in the critical, must-win battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin. He'll be campaigning alongside Harris this evening in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Within hours of announcing Walz as her running mate, Harris announced that her campaign raised more than $10 million, marking one of the largest one-day fundraising hauls of the 2024 campaign cycle.

Watch Stevens' segment below, or by clicking this link.

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