WASHINGTON, D.C. — The sweepstakes are over, now that Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled her running mate as Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and former President Donald Trump selected Ohio Sen. JD Vance.


What You Need To Know

  • Vice President Kamala Harris chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate

  • Both Walz and Republican VP nominee Sen. JD Vance come from the Midwest

  • Though they share a regional background, the two are far apart on policy

Both candidates were chosen with their Midwestern roots in mind in order to shore up support in critical swing states like Wisconsin and Michigan. Those two states, along with Pennsylvania, were among the “Blue Wall” of states that had voted reliably Democratic in presidential elections until 2016, when they flipped to back Trump.

Though Walz and Vance share a regional background, though, the two men are already at odds over their records.

As Harris and Walz kicked off their campaign together in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Walz wasted no time in appealing to Midwestern voters, and suggesting that Vance does not represent them.

“Like all regular people I grew up with in the Heartland, JD studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires and then wrote a best seller trashing that community,” Walz told the crowd. “Come on. That's not what middle America is.”

Vance, who served in the Marines for four years, including a tour in Iraq, hit back on Wednesday, accusing Walz of lying about his military service.

Walz retired after 25 years in the National Guard in 2005 to begin his successful run for Congress. His battalion deployed to Iraq shortly afterward.

“What bothers me about Tim Waltz is the stolen Valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you're not,” Vance said. “And if he wants to criticize me for getting an Ivy League education, I'm proud of the fact that my mama supported me. That I was able to make something of myself. I'd be ashamed if I was him, and I lied about my military service like he did.”

Both Walz and Vance are generally aligned with their respective running mates’ policy stances.

Both said they were ready to debate each other, though no date has been set.

A vice presidential debate had been scheduled in Easton, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 25, but was cancelled.

If the two don’t face off, it would be the first presidential election without a vice presidential debate since 1980, when Republican vice presidential nominee George H.W. Bush and Democratic vice presidential nominee Walter Mondale both refused to participate.

The candidates have one other thing in common: both love Diet Mountain Dew. Besides containing 91 milligrams of caffeine to keep them going on the campaign trail, the soda has deep Appalachian roots. The term “mountain dew” is old slang for moonshine, and the soda was originally created in the 1940s as a mixer for whiskey.