PHILADELPHIA — Democrats packed a Philadelphia basketball arena to the gills on Tuesday, with more than 10,000 raucous supporters cheering on Kamala Harris and her newly-named running mate Tim Walz . In his first speech since becoming the presumptive vice presidential candidate, Walz roasted Donald Trump and J.D.
Vance, as he declared that the next 91 days would not just be about winning the election, but to doing it “with a sense of joy.” The mood inside Temple University’s basketball arena was certainly joyful — ebullient even, bordering on orgiastic. Crowded together under enormous “Harris and Walz” signs and sporting light-up wristbands like the kind Taylor Swift gives out at the Eras Tour, Philadelphians helped Harris and Walz kick off a tour of their own: a five-day blitz through seven battleground states, starting with the most important one on the map for Democrats this November: Pennsylvania.
The pair walked out on stage together early Tuesday evening, just hours after a fleet of black SUVs converged on the Minnesota governor’s St. Paul residence early Tuesday morning and plunged him directly into the center of the 2024 election vortex, and one day after Harris clinched the top spot on the Democratic ticket. Addressing the throngs of screaming supporters, Harris introduced the world to Walz: a teacher, national guardsman, congressman, governor, and coach that helped take a high school football team from a winless season to state championship.
When it .