Vice President Kamala Harris formally won the Democratic presidential nomination on Monday. The next day, she introduced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.
A five-day online voting process officially gave Harris the nomination. Delegates to the Democratic National Convention began voting on Thursday to select their nominee for president. Unlike past years, the vote began more than two weeks before the convention. Delegates didn’t vote on the convention floor. Instead, they participated in a “virtual roll call.” They filled out electronic ballots from their homes, offices, or vacation spots.
Harris received 4,563 delegate votes out of 4,615 cast. That’s about 99% of participating delegates.
Harris was the only candidate eligible to receive votes. No other candidate qualified by the party’s deadline.
Delegates used an electronic voting method. The party says that method is similar to one used in the 2020 convention. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the party conducted much of its official business remotely that year.
President Joe Biden ended his campaign in late July. He quickly endorsed Harris. She immediately started the search for a running mate. After the certification of the virtual roll call vote, Harris officially nominated Walz as her vice president.
The 60-year-old Walz has served as Democratic governor of Minnesota since 2019. Before running for Congress, he was a high school social studies teacher. He also served in the Army National Guard.
Walz represented Minnesota’s 1st congressional district from 2007 to 2019. When he ran for the U.S. House of Representatives, he defeated a six-term Republican representative. He went on to win reelection five times himself before running for governor.
In his second term as governor, Walz has focused on agriculture issues and gun reforms. His actions include promoting biofuels and requiring universal background checks for gun transfers. Walz has been a champion of Democratic causes, including union organizing and a $15-per-hour minimum wage.
At a rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Walz revved up the crowd. The candidates have little time to campaign before the election. “We have 91 days,” he says. “We’ll sleep when we’re dead.”
The Democratic duo will now embark this week on a seven-state trip. They will visit key battlegrounds, including Pennsylvania, Arizona, and North Carolina.
