Kamala Harris taps a progressive as a running mate

VICE-PRESIDENT Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, has chosen as a running mate a progressive Midwestern politician, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, signalling her intentions to highlight the ideological differences between the Democrats and the Republicans.

Many pundits had predicted that VP Harris would choose centrist Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania as the vice-presidential candidate. That would have made sense in terms of reaching out to moderate voters and winning the big battleground state of Pennsylvania.

But Harris faced opposition to the nomination of Shapiro from Muslim voters and members of her party’s progressive wing who rejected the Philadelphia governor, who is Jewish, because of his supposedly pro-Israel position.