Until yesterday, even for a meaningful number of Capitol Hill insiders, former congressman Tim Walz was not exactly a known quantity on the national stage. Of course, now that Kamala Harris has selected the amiable everyman governor from Minnesota as her running mate, Walz has become, overnight, one of the most scrutinized public figures in America. So far, he’s met the moment, offering up a folksy but smartly honed speech on Tuesday night, alongside Harris, in which he deftly skewered his political foil, J.D. Vance.
In this conversation, adapted from Puck’s daily The Powers That Be podcast, Peter Hamby and John Heilemann chew over the most pertinent questions surrounding Walz: Where the hell did he come from, what does he really add to the ticket, what the pick really says about Harris and her campaign strategy, and much more…
