Over the weekend after intensive interviews that Kamala Harris conducted with six candidates for vice president, on Tuesday night she came up with her choice of vice presidential candidate - Minnesota Gov. Tim Waltz. It's a candidacy that will no doubt have both supporters and critics. The events in the Middle East, the war that has been going on there for months, also had a serious impact on Kamala Harris' decision.
This is what he told “Focus" the long-time ambassador to the USA and vice president of the Atlantic Club in Bulgaria, Elena Poptodorova.
“Following the confirmation of Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee, there has been tension in the Republican camp, including regarding their vice presidential nominee JD Vance, that “Trump has chosen his own likeness and that he will strengthen the ranks of the Republicans". Kamala Harris applied the same approach, as much as Tim Waltz is known for more left-wing views, he falls in the political line of Kamala Harris herself," Poptodorova noted.
The campaign staff of Republican presidential candidate and former US president Donald Trump today described Kamala Harris's vice presidential candidate as a "dangerous leftist".
"There is a lot more to the left than what Kamala Harris and Governor Waltz represent, but that will be used heavily in the days leading up to the election. Governor Waltz portrays the average American and worries about his money, his kids, his house. "We are looking for a wider range of potential voters and supporters who recognize Tim Walz as their defender or representative of their interests," noted Elena Poptodorova.
The irony, she says, is that both Trump and Harris have acted in exactly the same way, which will essentially empower their constituents internally. "The 20 percent of voters who decide where to cast their vote at the last minute are somewhat left uncovered in these nominations. The election race will enter the US economy, and specific politics that affect the voters themselves. It's going to be a very tough race, a race in that both Vance and Waltz are attacking the same middle ground—that is, the working class or the middle class, which feels that it is losing some of the advantages that it has accumulated over the years through its labor, by corresponding measures of internal US policy. These people are the target of this campaign. Vance is not convincing as such an advocate, because of his personal history and professionally, with the big money of Silicon Valley, with the way he enters a startup. He is not the typical representative of the middle west to begin with and of this labor group.
Tim Walz is the teacher, the football coach, part of the families of these people who expect to vote for him. Obviously, that's Harris' goal. Most Americans had not heard of Waltz until now, and suddenly he was at the highest level of American politics. He must be introduced, known, liked. It is more authentic in terms of political and electoral goals that both campaigns set for themselves. He called “strange" Trump and Vance, and it was picked up very widely. From here on, it will matter how they present each other, how well they will be perceived by the average voter and of course who will be perceived as more authentic. "The vice presidents are important as a characteristic, but in the end the election is Harris - Trump," stressed Elena Poptodorova.
He pointed out that Kamala Harris was able to melt a considerable difference of 5%, which was present between Trump and Biden, in the most critical states. But it hasn't topped Trump's results, and right now they're more or less equal. In the critical 7 states Trump has a slight advantage of 1-2% still. "After yesterday's nomination of Tim Waltz for vice president, we will see if that affects public opinion in any way, we will be watching the state polls to see on the ground how the mood is going. Tense days are ahead for them and for the observers," concluded Elena Poptodorova.