Conservative leaders and elected officials are warning that Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz (D-Minn.) represent the most far-left presidential ticket in American history. “This is the most Radical Left duo in American history. There has never been anything like it, and there never will be again. Crazy Kamabla is, indeed, CRAZY,” declared former President Donald Trump on Truth Social, in response to Harris selecting Walz as her running mate on Tuesday. Trump joked that the Harris-Walz ticket is so extreme that “THERE IS A BIG MOVEMENT TO ‘BRING BACK CROOKED JOE.’”
“I would say my reaction is I can’t believe it, I never thought he was going to be the one that was picked,” Trump told Fox News in a Wednesday morning interview. “He’s a very, very liberal man, and he’s a shocking pick. The former president added that he’s “thrilled” to be competing against such a stark contrast in November’s election, pledging to focus on Harris’s and Walz’s “radical” records. “He’s a smarter version of her,” Trump quipped, referring to the Democratic duo’s left-wing policies. He continued, “There’s never been a ticket like this. This is a ticket that would want this country to go communist immediately, if not sooner. … He’s very heavy into transgender — anything transgender he thinks is great. And he’s not where the country is on anything.” He added, “This is a really bad decision for the country. Ultimately, I want the country to have good decisions because, ultimately, what we want is for the country to do well. The country can’t do well with these two people.”
Trump’s own running mate, Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), took a similar approach, saying on Tuesday that Harris’s selection of Walz “just highlights how radical Kamala Harris is…” He continued, “Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020, and then the few who got caught, Kamala Harris helped bail them out of jail. So, it is more instructive about what it says about Kamala Harris.” He noted, “She doesn’t care about the border. She doesn’t care about crime. She doesn’t care about energy. And most of all, she doesn’t care about Americans who have been made to suffer under those policies.”
A U.S. Marine Corps veteran himself, Vance also criticized Walz for lying about his military record at a campaign event on Wednesday. “As a Marine who served his country in uniform when the United States Marine Corps, when the United States of America asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it. I did what they asked me to do, and I did it honorably,” Vance said. He continued, “When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him, a fact that he’s been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people that he served with.” The senator added, “I think it’s shameful to prepare your unit to go to Iraq, to make a promise that you’re going to follow through, and then to drop out right before you actually have to go.”
Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis (R) also blasted the Harris-Walz ticket, quipping the pair’s campaign slogan might be “Make America Burn Again.” At a press event, DeSantis noted the involvement of both Harris and Walz in 2020’s Black Lives Matter riots, saying, “Those were riots that Harris egged on and raised money to bail out the rioters with Minnesota Bail Fund, and they’re riots that Tim Walz as governor sat back and let happen. He sat back and let the city of Minneapolis burn. That city has been gutted as a result of those riots.” He continued, “This is a ticket that really represents the spirit of those 2020 BLM riots. You have a very vapid San Francisco Democrat and then you’ve got an Ilhan Omar-style leftist, Tim Walz, who has the same policies as his fellow Minnesotan Ilhan Omar,” referring to pro-Hamas “Squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). The Florida governor added, “We do not need an America that represents the failed policies of San Francisco or the failed policies of Minneapolis. We do not need to see poop on the street and cities burning down. That is not a prescription for America to work its way back.”
DeSantis also observed that, in 2021, “Minnesotans were roughly five times more likely to move to Florida than vice versa. They were fleeing a state that, under Gov. Tim Walz, turned its back on law and order, increased taxes, and imposed unscientific coronavirus restrictions, harming children and destroying businesses.” He reiterated, “Walz is an unbridled leftist, an Ilhan Omar-style Democrat that puts ideology above all else.”
Republican Governor Greg Abbott of the Lone Star State branded Harris and Walz “the most radical and dangerous administration in modern history.” He stated, “Tim Walz will be a rubberstamp for Kamala Harris’ deadly open border policies, refusing to admit there is a border crisis, opposing border wall funding, and supporting sanctuary cities.”
“As Governor of Minnesota, Walz’s policies endangered the lives of those he was elected to protect — and we can only expect more of the same as Vice President,” Abbott continued. “Like Harris, Walz endorsed defunding the police, and under his watch, vehicle theft, aggravated assault, and even murder rates have gone up in Minnesota. And while Minneapolis was burning as riots overtook the city in 2020, Walz refused to call in the National Guard for three days.”
“Walz is also a climate radical who wants to destroy American energy independence and completely eliminate fossil fuels, killing hundreds of thousands of good-paying oil and gas jobs in Texas and across the country,” the Texas governor added. He concluded, “Tim Walz is in lockstep with Kamala Harris’ dangerous open border, anti-energy, soft-on-crime agenda that will hurt Americans and the future of our country.”
The Harris-Walz ticket shows that “the Democrat Party is all in on its far-left cultural agenda,” said Terry Schilling, president of the socially-conservative American Principles Project. “Walz is one of the few Democrats whose radical record rivals Harris’s own,” Schilling continued, citing the Minnesota governor’s left-wing track record. “There can be no doubt that a Harris-Walz administration would be a disaster for families. It’s critical that parents recognize the stakes. … Harris and Walz cannot be allowed to run or hide from this record, and we will make sure they are forced to confront it.”
Christian organizations have also sounded the alarm over Walz’s extremism. Robert Ketterling, founding pastor of the River Valley Church in Minnesota, and Samuel Rodriguez, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, issued a joint statement condemning the Harris-Walz pairing. “Walz has signed laws restricting free speech for pastors, made derogatory comments about conservatives, and embraced socialism — all of which make him an unappealing choice for those in the political center,” the pastors observed. They continued, “His lack of likability, often coming across as angry and on the edge of violence, only exacerbates his inability to connect with a broader electorate. … [Walz’s] liberal policies, ineffective crisis management, divisive rhetoric, and failure to appeal to independent and moderate voters make him a liability rather than an asset.”
The conservative Catholic League said in a statement that Walz’s “policies on religious liberty and sexual issues mirror” Harris’s. The Catholic League noted that, in addition to the Minnesota governor’s unabashed abortion and LGBT advocacy, he stripped religious liberty protections from Christians in 2023, barred Christian colleges and universities with statements of faith from participating in the state’s Postsecondary Enrollment Options program, and forced churches to remain closed during COVID-19 while he allowed retail stores, liquor shops, bars, casinos, and shopping malls to reopen. “Tim Walz is no friend of religious liberty, the rights of the unborn, and the welfare of young people. There will be no tension between him and Harris on any of these issues,” the Catholic League concluded.
Harris announced Walz as her running mate at a campaign event in Philadelphia on Tuesday. The vice president has faced criticism over her own far-left record, which includes abortion advocacy, LGBT activism, climate hysteria, an ongoing illegal immigration crisis, skyrocketing crime rates, rampant inflation, the aggressive prosecution of American Christians, and the cover-up of President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, among others.
S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.
