Harris picks running mate

WASHINGTON:

Kamala Harris picked Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, opting for the Minnesota governor as the partner most likely to complement her in a historic -- and bruising -- bid for the White House.

Walz had been on a shortlist with a string of other Democratic figures seen as broadening Harris’s appeal as she sprints into the contest against Donald Trump.

Aiming to make history as the first woman president, Harris -- already a trailblazer as the first female and first Black and South Asian vice president -- has little time before Election Day on November 5.

The choice was first reported by CNN early Tuesday morning. Expectations had always been that Harris would pick a white man to balance the ticket -- and the kind of Democrat who can help counter attacks from Republicans that she is too far to the left.

Walz fits that description as a 60-year-old Midwesterner with a folksy manner from a state that could be light years from the coastal elites of California, where Harris comes from, or the East Coast.

He will also appeal to progressives after having championed popular Democratic policies including cannabis legalization and increasing worker protections.

The duo will hit the campaign trail immediately, launching an intense, five-day swing through battleground states starting Tuesday in the biggest prize, Pennsylvania.