Vice President Kamala Harris announced Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) on Tuesday as her running mate, a pick that has some of the more extreme far-left members of the Democratic Party feeling excited. That excitement doesn't look to be extending to many others, though, as Cygnal's Brent Buchanan emphasized about the pick. He even quoted Shania Twain's hit song to prove his point.
Responding to coverage from CNN about the pick in his daily take for Tuesday, Buchanan used Walz's own insult towards Republicans against him. "Walz is a 'weird' choice coming from the once most liberal US Senator before joining Biden," Buchanan began, also referencing how Harris was ranked the most liberal senator for 2019.
Buchanan's next point also spoke to how Harris looks to have gone in a different direction from other presidential nominees. "Even the most radical politicians tend to be more pragmatic in their choices of running mates, so does this prove VP picks don't matter much? Walz is as radically progressive as Harris and way outside mainstream American beliefs," he continued.
As far as a "pragmatic" pick, Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) had also been on the shortlist, and there's been plenty of chatter as to how he was likely skipped over because of his Jewish faith and support for Israel in order to cater to the far-left base. Shapiro didn't make the cut despite how he had been walking back his past support for Israel.
"Perhaps the hope is he can do more of talking when Kamala reverts back to her empty platitudes and word salads. At any rate, swing voters are likely hearing echoes of Shania Twain's hit 'That Don't Impress Me Much,'" Buchanan added, going for that quote of the 1997 iconic hit.
So, what do voters think of Walz? As Madeline covered earlier on Tuesday, a recent NPR/PBS News Marist National poll found that a whopping 71 percent don't know enough about the governor to have an opinion. An ABC News/Ipsos poll from late last month showed that 86 percent said they didn't know if they had a favorable/unfavorable impression of him (57 percent) or had no opinion (29 percent).
Mia has also highlighted some of the more notable and certainly extreme aspects of Walz's record as governor. While the governor may label former and potentially future President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) as "weird," as well as Republicans as a whole, it looks like Walz is the "weird" one. He's certainly radical.
While the Trump campaign has had its eye on Minnesota potentially being in play, Pennsylvania looks to be a much easier win for the Trump-Vance ticket, especially as Trump currently leads by +1.8 there, per RealClearPolling averages.
Time will tell how Americans feel about Walz, and Harris, especially as the Democratic nominee's honeymoon period looks to be ending. We still have almost exactly three months until Election Day, with voters having that much time to familiarize themselves with the extreme records of both Harris and Walz.
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