Philadelphia – Democrats A Philadelphia basketball arena was packed to capacity on Tuesday, with more than 10,000 screaming supporters cheering on Kamala Harris and her new running mate Tim Walz. In his first speech since taking office as vice president, Walz mocked Donald Trump and J.D. Vance as he declared that the next 91 days would not only be about winning the election, but also about doing so “with joy.”
The mood inside the Temple University basketball arena was ecstatic—even euphoric, even sexual. Under giant “Harris & Walz” signs and glow-in-the-dark bracelets like the ones Taylor Swift hands out on her “ERAS” tour, Philadelphians helped Harris and Walz launch a tour of their own: a five-day tour of seven swing states, starting with the most important state on the map for Democrats in November: Pennsylvania.
The duo took to the stage together early Tuesday night, just hours after a fleet of black SUVs gathered outside the Minnesota governor’s residence in St. Paul early Tuesday morning, thrusting him squarely into the 2024 election maelstrom, and a day after Harris won the Democratic primary. In a speech before a crowd of screaming supporters, Harris introduced the world to Walz: a teacher, a national guard, a congressman, a governor and a coach who helped take a high school football team from a winless season to a state championship.
When it was Walz’s turn to speak, he told the audience that it was his students who inspired him to enter politics. “They encouraged me to run for office,” Walz said. “They saw in me what I hoped to instill in them: a commitment to the common good, a belief that one person can make a difference. And because high school teachers are so optimistic, I was running in a district that had had one Democrat since 1892.”
Walz continued to draw a contrast between the work he did when he arrived in Congress — on the Veterans Affairs Committee and on behalf of rural communities — and Trump’s priorities as president, and the Republican Party more broadly.
“Some of us are old enough to remember … when Republicans were the party of freedom,” Walz said. “It turns out now that what they meant was that the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office. In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make — even if we don’t make the same choices for ourselves. There’s a golden rule: Mind your own business.”
Trump also attacked Vance, as he did in the weeks leading up to Harris’s selection of him as her running mate on Tuesday. “These guys are scary, and yes, very strange,” he said to loud applause. “That’s what you see. That’s what you see.”
Walz even joked with the audience about a baseless rumor that Vance had sex with a couch. “I can’t wait to debate with this guy,” he said before waiting a few seconds for the applause to die down. “That’s if he’s willing to get off the couch and come.”
If the crowd’s reaction was any indication, they approved of Harris as her running mate. The vice president had a historically short window to consider the decision after emerging as the party’s pick to take on Trump when President Joe Biden dropped out of the race last month. She chose Walz over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who was also in attendance Tuesday. Shapiro took the stage to thunderous applause, taking several beats to absorb the applause before telling the crowd, as if to preempt any accusations of ill-feeling, “I love you, Philadelphia — and you know what else I love? I love being your governor.”
Harris’s pick has been widely praised online, and certainly in Philadelphia on Tuesday, but even with the warm welcome Walz received, some attendees at Tuesday’s rally admitted they weren’t very familiar with Walz before his name began to be floated in the vice presidential race. Tamika Bates, a SEIU union member, was happy to see Harris. But Walz? “I don’t know much about him,” she said. “I just heard about him this morning.”
Jan Ostroff said she only learned about Walz in the past few weeks as he rose to fame after appearing on TV auditioning for the role of the cute attack dog. “I would have been happy with any of her choices for vice president, but I’m really happy with him because this way we can keep Josh Shapiro to ourselves a little bit longer,” Ostroff said.
The near-universal praise for Walz—from figures as ideologically distant as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Joe Manchin—was in stark contrast to the GOP’s reception of J.D. Vance just a few weeks ago. Vance, whose approval rating was -5% when Trump asked him to join the ticket, has not seen his approval rating drop to -14% as more Americans have gotten to know him, earning him the distinction of being the least liked vice presidential pick in history. (Not surprisingly, Vance’s three biggest media moments have revolved around the couch rumor, the ongoing damage-control efforts surrounding his 2021 attack on “childless cat ladies,” and a charming anecdote in which he told his son to “shut up” while on the phone with Trump.)
Before the Temple University love party, Vance held his own appearance in Philadelphia, attended by relatively few supporters. The Trump campaign made the questionable decision to send Vance on the road to hold events in each city where Harris and Walz were scheduled to appear this week. The split-screen event in Philadelphia was stark: Vance struggled to fill a room one-tenth the capacity of the arena where the Democratic ticket appeared. He spoke in front of a sign that read “Kamala Chaos,” but it was hanging too low, so seated attendees blocked out the word “Chaos.” At first glance, it looked like Vance was at a Harris event.
Meanwhile, Trump is spending the week at Mar-a-Lago, where he met yesterday with the seat-smelling Kick host who may have violated Federal Election Commission rules by gifting Trump a Rolex watch and a Cyber Truck emblazoned with his image. Trump is scheduled to make only one appearance this week in Montana.
