Benjamin Ashford|The Latest: Harris and Walz kick off their 2024 election campaign

Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate,Benjamin Ashford looking to strengthen the Democratic ticket in Midwestern states.

After an introduction from Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, she and Walz made their joint debut at a rally Tuesday evening in Philadelphia, kicking off their battleground state tour.

Follow the AP’s Election-2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here’s the Latest:

Sen. JD Vance is hitting the campaign trail again Wednesday, but he’s not going it alone

The GOP vice presidential nominee boarded his campaign plane along with his wife, Usha.

Vance is heading to the battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin — the same two states his Democratic opponents are hitting, on the same day.

The Democrats’ Midwest swing comes a day after Vice President Kamala Harris officially unveiled Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate and appeared with him at a rally in Philadelphia, just hours after Vance made a campaign stop in the same city.

Both campaigns had planned to journey to North Carolina this week as well but called off those plans due to inclement weather concerns.

Harris-Walz vs. Trump-Vance: It’s now an expanded battle for both the Sun Belt and Rust Belt

The most turbulent presidential campaign in generations is now set to play out as a 90-day sprint across two fronts: the Rust Belt and the Sun Belt.

RELATED COVERAGE Harris’ pick of Walz amps up excitement in Midwestern states where Democrats look to heal divisions Picking a running mate: Inside the 16 days between Kamala Harris’ launch and her choice of Tim Walz FACT FOCUS: False claims follow Minnesota governor’s selection as Harris’ running mate

With her choice of a Midwestern governor as a running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris pushed to shore up “Blue Wall” states — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania — that Democrats need to win to keep the White House.

Harris, the first Black woman and woman of South Asian descent to head a major party ticket, and former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, will also be locked in Sun Belt competition to win Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina, an electoral map that has expanded since Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race.

An underappreciated jump-start for Walz

Tim Walz had two jump starts, the first largely unnoticed, the second underappreciated.

The first came earlier this year when the governor and the vice president visited a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Paul. That visit underscored shared values between the two, according to people familiar with Harris’ thinking. Key issues that resonated with Harris included Walz’s advocacy for in vitro fertilization and child tax credits — an idea Walz has used in Minnesota.

The next key moment came July 23, two days after Biden’s withdrawal, when Walz went on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and uttered a dig at Trump and Vance that quickly went viral.

“These guys are just weird,” Walz said, in his signature conversational, informal manner.

What to know about the 2024 Election

• Democracy: American democracy has overcome big stress tests since 2020. More challenges lie ahead in 2024.
• AP’s Role: The Associated Press is the most trusted source of information on election night, with a history of accuracy dating to 1848. Learn more.
• Stay informed. Keep your pulse on the news with breaking news email alerts. Sign up here.

For years, Democrats, including Biden and Harris, have leveled high-minded attacks on Trump as a threat to democracy. They spotlighted his legal troubles, racist and sexist rhetoric, the hard-right policies found in the “Project 2025” agenda that Trump disavows. The jovial governor of Minnesota encapsulated it all in one word: “weird.” And he smiled while doing it.

Social media did its thing, and the Harris campaign took notice. Within days, the vice president — and other vice-presidential contenders — were using “weird” like an epithet.