At 51, Shapiro is a stand-out within the Democratic Party, known for his ability to cut through and communicate well – so much so that Vance attempted to insult him last week by saying he “talks like Barack Obama”.
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As a moderate, the former attorney-general of Pennsylvania was also seen as someone who could appeal to centrist Democrats and independents in his home state, arguably the most important battleground Harris needs to win to make history on November 5.
But Shapiro also happens to be Jewish, and some progressives had warned that his pro-Israel stance and past condemnation of the campus protests that raged across America this year could have been problematic for the presumptive Democratic nominee as she tries to differentiate herself from Biden on the issue of Gaza.
In the end, it was a chance that the famously risk-averse Harris may not have been willing to take, even if it exposed her to accusations of antisemitism seeping into her party.
“We are seeing it in the protests, in the rhetoric by the (Democrat) Squad and members of Congress, and now in the VP pick,” said former Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley, a former UN ambassador. “They can’t talk this away as coincidence. It’s concerning.”
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In picking Walz instead, Harris made a direct play to the Democratic base — and not just the electorate map — while betting that her new running-mate’s small-town grit and straight-shooting style will appeal to working-class voters across the Midwest.
After all, she told a rally in Philadelphia tonight (local time), he’s the hunter who enacted common-sense gun reform in Minnesota; the teacher born in small-town Nebraska who signed up to be the faculty adviser of the first gay-straight alliance chapter at his school; the congressman who reached across the political aisle to get things done.
She’s also banking on the fact that Walz will not face the same kind of problems that Vance has faced, after his comments about America being run by miserable “childless cat ladies” drew widespread condemnation from the very female voters that Trump desperately needs to woo.
And in an election race that is still anyone’s to lose, Harris is hoping her VP pick can be an effective attack dog against an incendiary former president and his mini-me in the final stretch of this extraordinary campaign.
It was a job Walz passed with flying colours tonight as he derided Trump as a chaos agent, a convicted felon and self-serving politician.
But there are still 91 days until election day, and as Harris acknowledged to the crowd: “We are the underdogs in this race… and I know exactly what we are up against.”
The crowd, however — some sporting new Harris-Walz merchandise; others holding up banners declaring “Kamala is the Future” — was energised and adamant: “We are not going back! We are not going back!”
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