[Source: Reuters]

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate on Tuesday, choosing a progressive policy champion and a plain speaker from America’s heartland to help win over rural, white voters.

Harris announced the selection in a text message to supporters.

Walz, a 60-year-old U.S. Army National Guard veteran and former teacher, said he was honored to join Harris on the ticket.

Walz was elected to a Republican-leaning district in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006 and served 12 years before being elected governor of Minnesota in 2018.

As governor, Walz has pushed a progressive agenda that includes free school meals, goals for tackling climate change, tax cuts for the middle class and expanded paid leave for Minnesota workers.

He has long advocated for women’s reproductive rights but also displayed a conservative bent while representing a rural district in the U.S. House, defending agricultural interests and backing gun rights.

Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, is adding a popular Midwestern politician whose home state votes reliably for Democrats in presidential elections but is close to Wisconsin and Michigan, two crucial battlegrounds.

Such states are seen as critical in deciding the Nov. 5 election, and Walz is widely seen as skilled at connecting with white, rural voters who in recent years have voted broadly for Republican Donald Trump, Harris’ rival for the White House.

Harris chose Walz over Josh Shapiro, the popular governor of Pennsylvania, who had been seen as helpful to delivering his crucial battleground state.

Harris, 59, became the Democratic Party’s standard bearer after President Joe Biden, 81, ended his reelection campaign under party pressure last month. Since then, she has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and recast the race against Trump with a boost of energy from her party’s base.

Harris was expected to appear with Walz at an event in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening. They will face Trump and his running mate JD Vance, also a military veteran from the Midwest, in the November election.