On Tuesday, United States Vice President Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz as her running mate, selecting the Minnesota governor as her partner for a potentially historic and challenging bid for the White House.
Walz was on a shortlist of other Democratic figures, seen as broadening Harris's appeal as she competes against Donald Trump.
Aiming to make history as the first female president, Harris — already a trailblazer as the first woman and the first Black and South Asian vice president — has limited time before Election Day on November 5.
CNN first reported the selection early Tuesday morning.
It was always expected that Harris would choose a white man to balance the ticket — a type of Democrat who could help counter Republican attacks that she is too far to the left.
Walz fits this description as a 60-year-old Midwesterner from a state that could not be more different from California's coastal elite background, where Harris comes from, or the East Coast.
He will also appeal to progressives, having supported popular Democratic policies, including the legalization of cannabis and increased worker protections.
The pair will immediately launch their campaign, starting a five-day swing through battleground states, beginning in Pennsylvania on Tuesday.
Fresh from securing the official Democratic nomination overnight, Harris can now take full control of her party at the national convention in Chicago in two weeks.
For Harris, it has been a remarkable journey, joining the race just last month after President Joe Biden stepped aside, citing growing concerns about his mental fitness and capability for a second term at 81 years old.
In a campaign barely two weeks old, the 59-year-old former prosecutor has shattered fundraising records, attracted large crowds, and dominated social media, reversing Trump's growing lead over Biden in the polls.
In the latest presidential poll released Monday by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Harris led Trump nationally by three points — 46% to 43% — compared to Trump's four-point lead over Biden in January.
The first major test
In the states that decide the Electoral College contest in U.S. elections, Harris is neck-and-neck with Trump, who stunned the world with his 2016 presidential win but lost to Biden in 2020.
Selecting a vice-presidential running mate was Harris's first major test in her bid to become the country's chief executive.
"This tells you about her thought process," polling expert Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report newsletter told CBS News.
Now, Harris and Walz will face their first test on the ground as they embark on a nationwide swing this week, from Philadelphia to Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, and Nevada. Tropical Storm Debbie has forced the postponement of stops in another swing state, Georgia, and North Carolina, according to media reports.
Pennsylvania is part of the "blue wall" that took Biden to the White House in 2020, along with Michigan and Wisconsin. This was a key reason many expected Harris to choose the state's governor, Josh Shapiro.
Other names on the vice-presidential shortlist included former astronaut and current Arizona Senator Mark Kelly and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear.
Trump, politically buoyed after surviving an assassination attempt at a rally last month, has been using the Republican convention to highlight his strength against the physically frail Biden.
But with Biden's dramatic exit and Harris's rapid rise, he is scrambling to regroup.
At a rally in Georgia last week, Trump called Harris a "Marxist" and a "radical left-wing lunatic," claiming she would cause an "economic crash."
Three days earlier, he shocked many when he told an audience of Black journalists that Harris had "turned Black" for political convenience.
While Biden often attacked Trump as a threat to democracy, given his unprecedented refusal to accept his 2020 loss, Harris's team has adhered to a sharper, more memorable line, branding Trump and his vice-presidential pick J.D. Vance as "weird."
On Saturday, the Harris campaign said Trump was "afraid" to debate her after he turned down a scheduled TV debate on ABC while expressing readiness to debate her on Fox News, a network that has supported him for years.
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