Washington, DC – In the United States political circles, conventional wisdom dictates that voters only care about the candidate atop the presidential ticket, not the running mate.
While vice presidential picks can play a role in public opinion, voters cast ballots mostly for the headliners — or so the argument goes.
In the 2024 presidential race, that means much of the attention will fall to Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, the Democratic and Republican nominees, respectively.
But as Harris zips across the country on a campaign blitz, she is poised to put that logic to the test.
She is campaigning side by side with her newly minted running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, stopping in the battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday.
Democratic strategists say Harris’s selection of Walz is part of an effort to pull ahead in a neck-and-neck presidential race.
His avuncular personality, progressive messaging and middle-class Midwestern roots seem well-suited to answer specific Democratic needs: The party needs to shore up its progressive base and shed the shroud of coastal elitism if it hopes to reclaim the White House in November.
But take that optimism about Walz with a grain — or a shaker full — of salt, said Allan Lichtman, a history professor at American University.
“You can take all the punditry on the effect of the Walz pick on the election’s outcome and do with it what the great philosopher David Hume said you should do with works of superstition: Consign it to the flames,” Lichtman said.
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