Kamala Harris plays her race card – Gov. Tim Walz, the anti-Trump

FILE – Minnesota Governor Tim Walz greets reporters before Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at Planned Parenthood, March 14, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Adam Bettcher, File)

Kamala Harris took a night to sleep on it. But she knew what to do.

And it comes just one week after Donald Trump – the twice impeached, 34-times convicted, former president who has been found liable for sexual assault – inserted race into the campaign.

You’ll recall at the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention, Trump played his race card when he said about Harris, “She was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden, she made a turn and she went – she became a Black person.”

It was a divisive and false attempt to “other” Harris, and polarize the nation with a pitch to voters, as in “Who are you going to vote for – a woman confused and inauthentic about her ethnic identity, or the old reliable white guy autocrat who will defend you against all the negative DEI-ities?”

Harris that day called Trump’s move “the same old show,” and now one week later played her own, better race card.

For her running mate, Harris picked Governor Tim Walz, a pragmatic politician who made reddish-blue Minnesota winningly purple.

In a very divided political landscape, Tim Walz – a former National Guardsman, one-time high school social studies teacher, a gun owner and hunter — was able to bridge the differences, balance the state budget twice, and get things done. For the people.

With her Walz pick, Harris was telling Trump, “I see your racist white guy authoritarian populism, and raise you with a white guy who believes in the inclusive progressive populism of the working class.”

It was quite the play.

Walz over Shapiro 

Political observers had been predicting Harris would pick Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. So popular in Pennsylvania, Shapiro would have helped secure the vote in a key swing state Harris must win.

But Shapiro was also seen as alienating to some Democrats, including pro-Palestinian Democrats in Michigan, another must-win state.

In truth, Shapiro’s views on Israel are no more radical than many mainstream Democrats. And as of Monday night, even I was convinced that Harris would go for Shapiro.

But Harris is going to get Shapiro’s backing whether she picks him or not. With Walz, Harris gets an older white male, younger than Trump and more vigorous on the campaign trail.

And he’s fun.

Walz was the one who tagged Trump and the GOP ticket as “weird.”

A Walz choice was called a “no-brainer,” by Jacobin, a progressive journal. Walz is a pick that would “consolidate a far-from united party base and geographically balance out a campaign headed by a corporate California liberal,” the publication wrote.

It’s also a move we’ve seen. In 2008, Barack Obama, a historical candidate brimming with diversity, picked Joe Biden, a white moderate who could appeal to center-right conservatives who have gone astray.

Of course, this time, it’s a progressive populist who can speak to regular folks from small town, rural America, and relate to them in that Midwest folksy way.

That sort of landscape even exists in California where the Central Valley has given us conservatives like Kevin McCarthy and Devin Nunez. Places like San Joaquin County (Stockton) have large populations too ashamed to vote for Trump, or back him by default. I think they could be attracted to Harris because of Walz.

In that way, Harris’ pick of Walz also reminded me of my former boss, the Asian American political icon Norman Y. Mineta, a former cabinet member of two administrations (Clinton and G.W.Bush). A centrist, Norm was a progressive if you define that term as someone willing to find solutions in a time of gridlock.

As a press secretary and speechwriter to Norm during his time in Congress, I saw firsthand how he skillfully reached across the aisle to work with others like Republicans Alan Simpson (R-Wy) and Henry Hyde (R-Ill.). Both were not just colleagues, but friends.

It was how to keep talking past gridlock.  Norm’s life wasn’t intended to divide, only unify.

That’s the sense I get from the Harris pick of Walz. Going into the final 90 days, it gives the Democrats the best chance at a winning hand.

Asian American veep? 

I admit when I saw a recent picture of Shapiro with Harris, it showed Democratic Whip Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Rep. Judy Chiu behind them. And I wondered, why not an Asian American veep?

Maybe in time, but the pick for veep right down to the final day was always a matter of “white balance.”

Besides, you don’t need an Asian American veep when the top of the ticket is Harris, who is both Black and Asian American.

That’s still the takeaway from last week’s NABJ.

The US is an increasing multiracial, multi-ethnic nation (around 33.8 million people, a 10-year increase of 276 percent, according to the Census). We’re so slow to catch up with the trend, that none of us, including the media, knows how to talk about it.

But what surprised me most by Trump’s NABJ outburst was how it was opposite where the Republicans say they are when it comes to race.

It’s the party that helped sink affirmative action in college admissions.

What happened to colorblindness?

What happened to discussing the merits of a situation instead of going into racist ad hominem attacks?

Sadly, that’s not going to change.

Another good reason for the Walz selection. Standing next to Harris, Walz is the anti-Trump.

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He writes a column for the Inquirer.net’s US Channel. See him on YouTube.com/@emilamok1 Contact: www.amok.com.

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