Arab American community, major union behind Harris' choice of Walz as running mate
EAU CLAIRE, Wisconsin: Leaders of the Arab-American community and key labor unions in the American Midwest said Wednesday that Vice President Kamala Harris made the right choice in choosing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. -is with him in the November election.
Some Democratic Party leaders in Michigan worry that picking the wrong candidate could slow down the insurgency and destroy a coalition that has only recently begun to coalesce after President Joe Biden's decision to drop out of the race and to give way to Harris.
Walz's addition to the ticket eased some of the tensions, signaling to some leaders that Harris had heard concerns about another running mate, Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who they felt was has gone too far in its support for Israel.
“Parties recognize that there is a coalition they have to build,” said Abdullah Hammoud, the mayor of Dearborn, Michigan. “The selection of Walz is another sign of good faith.”
Harris and Walz on Wednesday spent their first full day campaigning across the Midwest, where they got a rare glimpse of the region's heated conflict as they hit the Wisconsin tarmac together to Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance.
Democrats are visiting Wisconsin and Michigan, hoping to woo the younger, more diverse, job-friendly voters who helped propel President Joe Biden to victory in the 2020 election.
Harris told Eau Claire's first rally of the day, “As Tim Walz likes to point out, we're a happy warrior.” Capitalizing on that sentiment, Harris' campaign said it raised $36 million in the first 24 hours after announcing Walz as his running mate.
The vice president said the couple was looking to the future with optimism, unlike former President Donald Trump whom he accused of being stuck in the past and preferring a more adversarial style of politics – even as he criticized his opponents.
“A man who suggests that the Constitution of the United States should be repealed should never again have the opportunity to sit behind the seal of the United States,” Harris said, his voice rising amid applause from the crowd. the crowd that his campaign said was more than 12,000.
Wednesday's campaign swing is crucial for him and Walz as Biden's four-year campaign has shown signs of faltering over the summer — particularly in Michigan, where the Israel-Hamas conflict will be at the center of the Democratic divide over the Biden administration. .
Speaking at a Democratic rally in Wisconsin in front of Harris, Walz had some critical words for Vance but dished out many of his harshest words about Trump, saying but “the former president mocks our laws, he sows chaos and division among the people and he will say nothing more than that. the work he did as president”.
Republicans are trying to portray Harris and Walz as too liberal for the Midwest, with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, saying on a conference call that Walz is “part of the radical , leftist idiots like Vice President Harris.”
A powerful emotion
But Democratic enthusiasm has grown since Harris announced his candidacy and picked Walz as his running mate.
“We love Joe. Joe has been an incredible president, but he's not just a messenger. And sometimes you need a better messenger,” said Dan Miller, of Pelican Lake, Wisconsin, who attended the Walz-Harris rally. “And that's Kamala.”
That could be a big deal in Detroit, which is nearly 80 percent black, where officials have warned for months that voter indifference could cost them a city. which is usually a strong defense for his party.
Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the NAACP Detroit chapter, said the excitement in the city today is “amazing.” He compared it to Barack Obama's first presidential election in 2008, when voters waited in long lines to help elect the nation's first black president.
Some Democratic leaders in Michigan worried that picking the wrong candidate could slow that momentum, however, and destroy the coalition that had only recently begun to coalesce.
Arab American leaders, who have significant influence in Michigan due to the presence of metro Detroit, have been vocal in their opposition to Shapiro for his past comments on the Israel-Hamas war.
These leaders specifically pointed to comments he made earlier this year about protests on university campuses, which they felt were unfairly comparing student actions to the practice of white people. Shapiro, who is Jewish, has criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while remaining a staunch supporter of Israel.
Osama Siblani, publisher of Dearborn-based Arab American News and a prominent leader in Michigan's large Muslim community, was among those who met with White House adviser Tom Perez in Michigan last week.
Although Perez was in the state on official business, he has been in contact with some Dearborn leaders since he and other top officials went with Biden in an effort to mend relations with the community.
Siblani said he met with Perez for more than an hour on July 29 and told him that if Harris chose Shapiro, he would “shut down” future talks.
“Not electing Shapiro is a very good step. It opens the door to open more for us,” said Siblani, who along with Hammoud stressed that a meaningful conversation must include a political dialogue.
dueling schedule
Trump, too, emphasized the appeal of voters in the Midwestern states by choosing Vance as the Republican senator from Ohio, as his running mate. Vance even collected the Harris-Walz ticket with his own appearances in Michigan and Wisconsin on Wednesday.
The war schedule was so tight that while Harris was greeting a group of Girl Scouts who had come to see him off at Wisconsin's Chippewa Valley Regional Airport, Vance's campaign plane landed nearby and took a long taxi.
Harris took a photo with the girls as Vance left, and he began walking to Air Force Two, followed by his security detail.
The vice president finally got into his car and drove off before they could interact. However, it is rare for the couple to do so in the public eye due to the nature of their well-organized campaign schedule.
“I want to see the plane coming,” Vance told reporters later, implying that he would travel on Air Force Two if he and Trump were elected in November. He also criticized Harris for not taking questions from reporters, even though he sometimes answers shouted questions while getting on or off planes to stop the campaign.
Vance told the crowd at his event in Eau Claire, “We just saw the vice president's plane,” and then joked to reporters traveling with him, “I thought but they must be lonely because Kamala Harris won't answer questions.”
“If these people want to call me weird, I'll call it a badge of honor,” Vance said, responding to the moniker Walz used to describe him that made the Minnesota governor Internet famous in the days before he accepted Harris to be his wife.
