“He brings the Midwest and also that he doesn’t have some of the baggage that Shapiro has,” said Kevin Beyer, a Pennsylvania voter at the rally. “I love Shapiro, but I think that he brings a lot more to it. He’s a veteran, he’s done so many good things. He’s not that controversial.”
Lorraine Bell, a 60-year-old teacher from Chester County, said Walz was her first pick and she liked that he is “a regular dude.”
“I love Josh Shapiro,” Bell said. “But we needed him in PA, so he needs to still be here. But Tim Walz, he’s good.”
Earlier in the day, Vance campaigned in Philadelphia. Seeking to flip the “weird” line of attack that Walz helped coin, Vance said “it is normal people who suffer when Kamala Harris refuses to do her job, and it is normal people who stand the most when we re-elect Donald Trump.”
Vance also sought to frame Walz as a far-left radical and his selection as evidence Harris “will bend the knee to the most radical elements of her party.”
“That’s exactly what she did here,” he said. “That’s what she’s going to keep on doing as president.”
Speaker after speaker at the Harris rally on Tuesday trained their fire on Vance, often to loud applause.
“I work with JD Vance,” Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said. “And I am here to confirm he is a seriously weird dude.”
Walz said Vance’s Yale educated, Silicon Valley background would not connect with midwestern voters.
“I can’t wait to debate the guy,” Walz said before alluding to a vulgar false claim made about Vance online. “That is if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up.”
Emma Barnett and Nnamdi Egwuonwu contributed.
