The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons Barron’s own blog.

I was happier than I thought I’d be yesterday morning when Kamala Harris announced her selection of Tim Walz as her running mate. That quiet sense of elation rose to celebration last evening with their first joint appearance at an exuberant rally in Philadelphia.

Several weeks of compare and contrast, sorting out the pros and cons of potential vice presidential running mates for Kamala Harris, gave us at least half a dozen solid choices, none of whom was without flaws. Back and forth we went, one day with Mark Kelly as top choice, the next with Josh Shapiro, and occasionally a day with Tim Walz. Then came the announcement, then the rally, and now, hope pulsates.

The politics of joy have returned, along with cautious optimism about the 2024 outcome. Tim Walz seems a perfect complement to Harris’s San Francisco Bay area roots and deep blue-state rise from district attorney and attorney general to U.S. senator and vice president. Waltz was born in a town of 400 people in Nebraska, was raised on a farm and, at the age of 17, enlisted in the Army National Guard. He was a military man for 24 years, got a degree in teaching on the G.I. bill and taught for a year in Harvard’s WorldTeach program in China. He speaks Mandarin. Then, with his new Minnesota-born wife, they moved to Minnesota, where Walz became a public school teacher and football coach.

In 2006, at the age of 42, urged on by his social studies students, he ran for Congress, tipped a rural Republican district, becoming the first Democrat to represent that district since 1892. He was reelected for five additional terms. (The district flipped back to Republican after Walz left the House 12 years later.) A sergeant-major, he was the highest ranking enlisted man ever elected to Congress, heavily involved with issues dealing with veterans, agriculture and infrastructure. He was a moderate, shown capable of working across the aisle, mastering the art of compromise without compromising his values.

He ran for governor in 2018 and was reelected four years later. He is highly respected by his peers and heads the Democratic Governors Association. His significant experience on Capitol Hill, combined with his gubernatorial executive skills, will be essential to Harris’s effectiveness in governing. Add to that job history their personal chemistry, and you have the combination that won Harris’s nod.

As for the runners up, Shapiro is clearly an emerging star, who models his speaking style on that of Barack Obama, with whom he is friendly. But, according to multiple accounts, the Pennsylvania Governor expressed reluctance to being cast as number two on the national ticket, and admitted he was struggling with having to leave his position of top dog as governor. Harris clearly picked up on this.

Former astronaut Senator Mark Kelly’s resume had star quality. As Arizona’s senator, he was solid on border security (problematic for Harris). He was passed over possibly because of strong labor opposition and his non-charismatic speaking style. Both he and Shapiro (along with the others under serious consideration) can – and now must – focus on winning their respective states for the Harris/ Walz ticket with the same energy as if they had been tapped as vice presidential nominee.

Walz may not bring Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes as easily as Josh Shapiro might have, (studies show there’s no statistical vice presidential home state advantage), but Walz’s back story and style seem to help Democrats target more sub-categories of voters (white, male, rural, non-college-educated) in more battleground states than Shapiro would. A gun owner, Walz hunts, but has fought for measures to improve gun safety. He fishes and does his own car repairs. He brought his losing high school football team to their first-ever state championship. There’s a down-home feel to his sense of humor, warmth and low-key manner. (For all of his geniality, he has already proven to be an effective attack dog, required of any vice presidential nominee.)

Some have used the happy warrior image to describe him, though the association of the term with Hubert Humphrey isn’t an image that usually excites me. Still, Walz offers a dramatic contrast with his counterpart on the GOP side, J.D. Vance, a contemptuous, misogynistic, cynical attack dog who is a darker representation of Donald Trump. The race could set up as a contest between future-thinking happy warriors and backward-looking dystopian fearmongers.

Right now, more than 70 percent of Americans don’t know who Tim Walz is, and the race is on in earnest by both campaigns to define him. The Republicans are already smearing the Harris-Walz ticket as the most radically left in U.S. history, swift-boating his military service and cherry-picking certain problematic aspects of his record.

They are already tarring him for being endorsed by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. GOP detractors fail to mention praise heaped on him by Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, so centrist he changed his affiliation in May from Democrat to Independent. Manchin says that the choice of Walz promises a return to normalcy and the ability to bring people together. Republicans for Harris (now Harris-Walz) committees are now cropping up, though don’t look for Republicans in his home state to follow suit.

Anti-Trumpers and pro-Democrats still face an uphill battle, and it won’t be pretty. Get used to GOP ads featuring out-of-control riots in Minneapolis after the police killing of George Floyd. Prepare yourself for “radical leftie” memes. They’ll attack his tough Covid restrictions, and you’ll hear about fraud in one of his Covid-era food programs. Keep remembering that, among his many accomplishments, he codified abortion rights, passed two gun safety laws, moved toward a carbon-free electric grid, passed a first-time home buyer assistance program and provided free school meals to children in participating schools.

The smartest journalist I know in Minnesota, who has covered Walz for years, describes him as “forward-thinking, open-minded, and (is) a genuine, honest human being who brings integrity and humor to all that he does.”

There’s a spirit of life that didn’t exist a month ago. Harris’s selection of Tim Walz, and its widespread enthusiastic reception, sustains her momentum and feeds the optimism so many of us have felt since she replaced Joe Biden on the ticket.

It may be gray and rainy outside today, but there’s sunshine in my heart – at least for now.