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Harris-Walz Ticket Gives Iowa Democrats Hopes of Winning Seats
(Bloomberg) -- The last-minute presidential campaign of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz is giving Democrats a surge of enthusiasm that could help the party win some down-ballot races in the Republican stronghold of Iowa, said Tom Vilsack, a former governor of the farm state.
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“Iowa actually in this cycle has a tremendous opportunity,” Vilsack said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. Vilsack, the US agriculture secretary, spoke in a personal capacity in the interview on Wednesday because he’s in Chicago attending the Democratic National Convention.
The influence could spread beyond Iowa, he said. Harris choosing Walz, the Minnesota governor, as her running mate helps bolster the profile of Democrats in critical rural areas the party has had a tough time winning in the last several election cycles, Vilsack said.
Walz, a former US representative from a conservative congressional district in Minnesota, should help attract Democratic votes in small towns across key battlegrounds like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Arizona, Vilsack said.
“This is a guy who can talk rural, and I think that really matters,” he said.
Walz has more broad appeal than Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio, the running mate of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, according to Vilsack, who in 1998 became the first Democrat elected governor of Iowa in three decades.
In Iowa, renewed energy among Democrats should help the party deliver a couple of victories in the state for US House candidates, Vilsack said.
Since 2000, Iowa in presidential elections has voted Republican half the time and Democrat the other half — the last being Barack Obama in 2012. The state is currently considered safe for Trump in November, according to the non-partisan Cook Political Report.
Vilsack also touted the administration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Harris in making substantial investments in clean energy.
“This opens up a whole new set of opportunities in rural places that can impact and effect farm income but also can help create jobs,” he said.
--With assistance from Matthew Miller, Sonali Basak and Katie Greifeld.
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