It's Tim Walz

Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate:

In picking Walz, 60, Harris is elevating a relatively unknown second-term governor from a state that hasn’t voted for a Republican for president in more than 50 years, passing over swing state contenders such as Arizona U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Harris and Walz will kick off a tour of battleground states Tuesday evening with a rally in Philadelphia.

Initially seen as a second-tier candidate for the job, Walz vaulted to the top of the list of possible prospects after spending weeks defending Harris on the cable news circuit, going viral in the process for his off-the-cuff messaging style. He’s credited with reframing the party’s attack on Republicans from an existential threat to democracy to these “really weird people” for their positions on abortion and book bans.

A national Democratic audience took to Walz’s blunt, fast-talking style and his “Minnesota nice” way of slamming Republicans, gaining supporters for the vice president job in labor unions, current and former members of Congress, progressive leaders and Gen Z activists like Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor David Hogg.

I thought US Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) would have rounded out the ticket well, but after seeing Harris's short list, Walz became my pick. I'm both glad and unsurprised that my governor, JB Pritzker, will stay in Springfield for another two years. (I expect he'll run for President in 2032.)

The election is 14 weeks from today. And though I try not to watch polls this far out, I did notice that as of yesterday, Harris is 3 points up against the XPOTUS, and her favorability is above water for the first time since she took office. Game on.