РНОТО: АР

On Tuesday, current US vice president and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris announced Gov. of Minnesota, Tim Walz as her running mate. Previously on July 15th former US President and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump had presented his running mate the senator of Ohio James David popularly known as "JD" Vance. As the presidential and vice presidential candidates are determined the race of election truly begins. Indeed one day after the announcement Harris and Walz held their first campaign rally in Philadelphia.

The importance of the Presidents is self-evident but the role of Vice President (VP) has gradually evolved from “the most insignificant Office” as the first VP John Adams once complained to his wife to the more active and influential roles like being the main advisor to the president, leading foreign policy and national security assignments, and representing the president. Nevertheless the role of the VPs is shaped by the Presidents they work with. 

While choosing their running mate, presidential candidates may either aim to bring in a partner that will complement their weaknesses or boost their strengths. Moreover the VP candidates were also selected to consolidate or attract the support of certain voter segments. For example, while an older senator may bring the complementary strength of wisdom and experience to a young presidential candidate as in the case of Obama/Biden administration, a woman mate would consolidate the support of women and african descent voters as in the case of Biden/Harris.

Former president Trump while picking JD Vance as running mate chose to boost his populist new right rhetoric instead of compensating his weak attributes. Most probably Trump assesses that in the highly polarised political environment he may not attract additional voters but boost the attendance of his supporters in the election. 

Republican Vance is a 39-year-old senator from Ohio. He is a US Marine Corps veteran where he served as a combat correspondent and a graduate of Yale Law School which is a highly prestigious research university. He is the writer of his memoir Hillbilly Elegy which was also adapted into a film with the same name. Vance was named as “Trump whisperer” as the book was accepted as a reference to understand Trump’s voter base and also was the first step of his political career. 

Vance is a highly adaptable politician who converted from a “Never Trumper” comparing Trump to Hitler to his VP pick. The transformation began when he announced his candidacy for Ohio senatorship in 2022. First he declared that he was wrong about Trump and he was the best President of his lifetime. Then Trump endorsed his candidacy saying “JD is kissing my ass he wants my support so bad”. Consistency is apparently not a strong suit of the populists.

Vance is generally described as a member of the new-right and he describes himself as a postliberal right. He is against abortion, against gun control, believes that Trump's victory in the 2020 election is stolen, and  takes a hard line on immigration supporting the construction of a border wall. He is against the aid to Ukraine, but supports US aid in Israel’s war in Gaza.

Trump’s choice of Vance is thought to aim to take full control of the Republican party. However Vance’s inexperience in politics and poor public speaking abilities worry some Republicans. Indeed his lack of experience shows itself in lazy jokes about diet soda and sexist comments about childless women. In the next 90 days till the election he is expected to reveal his “new right” ideas which are deemed by democrats as phoney, creepy and terrifying.

On the other hand Democratic Party's nominee for vice president Timothy James “Tim” Walz is an experienced politician who won elections five times and made a stellar entry to the race by calling Trump and Republicans as “these are weird people on the other side” making him popular among the young voters. Although labelling opposition as weird is not new in US politics, calling authoritarianism weird in the right time making it a subject of mockery was successful and stepped him up on the candidacy list. Indeed Vance tried to respond to the weird labelling clumsily as “We're normal guys” and Trump was not better while calling Kamala Harris "weird" instead.

Walz is like Harris, 60 years old. He was a sergeant in the Army National Guard which is the organised militia force of the US Army. He worked as a high school teacher and American football coach. He is described as a cheerful and friendly person. As he has a modest rural background and has represented rural districts for 12 years, he is expected to complement Harris, broadening her appeal to rural and working class voters. As a governor he has signed progressive laws like pro-abortion rights and LBGTQ+ rights. Moreover he is known to defend restriction to gun access and worker-centred labour policies.

On foreign policy he stays mid ways on Israel-Palestine recognising Israel’s right to defend but vocalising  the suffering of Palestinian civilians. It is thought that this approach was also a positive for Harris to pick him. He is a fierce supporter of Ukraine and supported several pro-Ukraine decisions and legislation in his state as Governor such as an agricultural deal between Minnesota and the north Ukrainian region of Chernihiv and state legislation ending investments in Russia and barring companies from doing business with Russian and Belorussian firms. Moreover since he worked in China as a teacher, he has in-depth experience with China. 

At the moment the Harris-Walz duo seem to build momentum and better harmony than the Trump-Vance. Republicans seem to be caught unguarded against Democratic Party’s change of Presidential candidate. Trump continues to repeat his already stale and for some weird performance at rallies and looks particularly stuck to the new democratic attack by defending himself “Nobody’s ever called me weird. I’m a lot of things, but weird I’m not.”