Harris and Walz fire up crowd in first rally as running mates – as it happened (2024)

This blog is closing soon. You can read our full report on the Philadelphia rally here:

Here are some pictures from the rally:

Casting their campaign as a “fight for the future”, Harris and Walz were repeatedly interrupted by applause and cheering as they addressed thousands of battleground-state voters wearing bracelets that twinkled red white and blue at Temple University’s Liacouras Center – a crowd her team said was its largest to date.

“Thank you for bringing back the joy,” a beaming Walz said to Harris, after she presented him to the crowd, reciting his biography as a teacher, high school football coach, military veteran, legislator and governor. Harris, who has served as vice-president to Joe Biden for three and a half years, said Walz, the Minnesota governor, would be “ready on day one”, and said the race between them and the Republican presidential ticket of Donald Trump and JD Vance was a “matchup between the varsity team and the JV squad”.

The new rule essentially makes the certification of election results discretionary, said Democratic state representative Sam Park at a press conference outside of the hearing room at the Georgia capitol.

“These are Maga certification rules, and they’re in direct conflict with Georgia law, which states in multiple places that local elections board officials shall perform their duties, meaning their duties are mandatory, not discretionary,” Park said.

Debate on the rule centered on how much power state law and court precedent grants to the state board of elections to set rules for local boards. Georgia supreme court case law describes the role of elections supervisors as ministerial with little discretion to declare a vote valid or invalid, said Nikhel Sus, deputy chief counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington DC.

“It is contrary to settled Georgia law and would exceed this court’s rule making authority,” Sus said. The law requires disputes about a vote to be resolved with investigations by district attorneys, courts and other bodies, he said.

Board members in support of the rule say that local elections supervisors are required to sign an affidavit declaring that the results of an election are accurate and correct, and that rules should permit elections boards the power to determine the truth of that statement for themselves.

The rule is likely to draw an immediate legal challenge so close to an election.

Moving away from the rally for a moment to other important election news: Georgia’s state board of elections adopted new rules for local election boards that permit them to withhold the certification of a vote in the face of unspecified discrepancies – a Republican-led move that could cause uncertainty and confusion after future election days.

The five-person board passed the measure in a 3-2 vote. The three board members who voted for it – Dr Janice Johnson, Rick Jeffares and Janelle King – were praised by name three days ago by Donald Trump at an Atlanta campaign rally.

The rule was proposed by Michael Heekin, a Republican appointee to the Fulton election board who refused to certify the presidential primary earlier this year. The rule requires local boards to initiate a “reasonable inquiry” when discrepancies emerge at a poll, and gives the power to withhold certification until that inquiry is completed. It does not define the term “reasonable inquiry”, nor does it establish strict limitations on the breadth of an inquiry.

Josh Shapiro, who spoke before introducing Harris and Walz at Tuesday’s rally, affirmed his support of Harris, exclaiming that she is “battle tested and ready to go”. He spoke of the danger of Trump becoming president again, citing the statement coined by Walz: “He’s a weirdo.”

Harris entered the stage shortly afterward. “Together with Josh Shapiro, we will win Pennsylvania,” she said to applause.

Cherelle Parker, Philadelphia’s mayor, also spoke in support of Harris at Tuesday’s rally. As the first Black female mayor in the city’s history, Parker acknowledged that the event was “history-making”.

“We are on the cusp of electing our vice-president Kamala Harris to be the 47th president of the United States,” Parker said as the crowd erupted. “Don’t let Trump the trickster take our eyes off the prize.”

In the eyes of Andrew Cambron, a 34-year-old teacher from Delaware, Walz was the best option for Harris’s running mate, since he’s “the kind of guy who resonates with the center of the country”. Cambron added that he wanted to see a broader investment in public education and to see Harris get behind universal healthcare.

“We finally have a progressive on the Democratic ticket,” Cambron said about Walz, “which hasn’t really happened since Obama in 2012.” Shapiro would have been a terrible choice, said Cambron, who disagreed with Shapiro’s pro-Israel stance and his efforts to quash pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses.

During the presidential primaries, more than 700,000 voters cast uncommitted ballots or the equivalent to express their dissatisfaction with Joe Biden’s support of Israel’s war on Gaza. The Uncommitted National Movement has stated that it’s waiting to hear from Harris on her Gaza policies before agreeing to endorse her. But following Harris’s Tuesday announcement about Walz, the group released a statement saying that they hope he will help change course on Gaza policy.

“Governor Walz has demonstrated a remarkable ability to evolve as a public leader, uniting Democrats diverse coalition to achieve significant milestones for Minnesota families of all backgrounds,” Elianne Farhat, senior advisor at Uncommitted and executive director of Take Action Minnesota, a political advocacy group, said in a statement. “As Harris’s vice-presidential pick, it’s crucial he continues this evolution by supporting an arms embargo on Israel’s war and occupation against Palestinians in an effort to unite our party to defeat authoritarianism in the fall.”

Here is that couch moment:

The Democratic running mates have “Happy Warrior energy”, per the New York Times’ chief White House correspondent, Peter Baker:

The Washington Post columnist James Hohmann points out that Walz has personal experience with the, at times, astronomically expensive US healthcare system:

Here is a summary of Harris and Walz’s speeches at the rally:

• In her first appearance with her newly minted running mate, Harris sought to define him foremost as a teacher and football coach. He was, she said, “the kind of teacher and mentor that every child in America dreams of having”. She told a story about him agreeing to be faculty adviser to his school’s gay-straight alliance, knowing “the signal it would send to have a football coach get involved”. He was, “the kind of coach, because he’s the kind of person, who inspires people to dream big”.

• Harris also spoke about Walz’s skills as a marksman, and his views on the second amendment: he is in favour, but with caveats for background checks and red flags. Walz was the highest ranking enlisted man to ever serve in US congress and the top Democrat on the veterans’ committee, she said. He was also known as one of Capitol Hill’s best marksmen. She also used football references, comparing him and Vance to “a matchup between the varsity team and the [junior varsity] squad”.

• Walz, who like Harris is known for his smile, started his speech by saying: “Thank you for the trust you put in me, but more so, thank you for bringing back the joy. “If Donald Trump and JD Vance are irritated that Kamala Harris smiles and laughs, they’re really going to be irritated by Tim Walz,” Melissa Hortman, the Democratic speaker of Minnesota’s house of representatives, told the Guardian on Tuesday. He also said: “Don’t ever underestimate teachers.” Walz’s wife, Gwen, is a teacher, too.

• When Walz talked about Trump, he pivoted quickly, and effectively, from talking about Republicans interfering with healthcare, to his own daughter being born thanks to IVF, to children fearing that they will be shot at school. “In Minnesota we respect our neighbours for the personal choices they make,” he said. “That includes IVF.” He talked about his daughter Hope, who often appears in videos and photographs with her father, being born through IVF. Abortion opponents have been increasingly pushing for broader measures that would give rights and protections to embryos and fetuses, which could have huge implications for fertility treatments and other areas of healthcare. Walz said “It wasn’t by chance that, when we welcomed our daughter into the world, we named her Hope.” Then he said that when he and Harris talk about freedom, they mean the freedom to make your own choice about your body, and the freedom for children to go to school and not worry about being shot.

• He called on people to “settle our political differences not with violence, but with votes” and said of Trump: “Don’t believe him when he plays dumb. He knows exactly what Project 2025 will to do restrict our freedoms.” He added of a second Trump term: “Only this time it will be much, much worse.” Walz seasoned his remarks with midwestern dialect, adding a “damn well” here and a “come on” there. “Say it with me! We are not going back,” he said, starting a chant from the audience. “We’ve got 91 days. My God, that’s easy,” he said. “We’ll sleep when we’re dead.”

• Walz made a couch reference. Walz said his GOP rival and Trump “are creepy and yes, they’re weird as hell”. He added that he “can’t wait to debate the guy”. Then, to sustained cheers and laughter, he made a reference to the baseless, but much-shared, claim that JD Vance admitted to having sex with a couch in his memoir. “That is if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up.” Stumping earlier today in Pennsylvania, Vance said, “I absolutely want to debate Tim Walz,” but not until after the Democratic convention.