Vice President Kamala Harris, the presumptive 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate Tuesday, a move that experts say highlights the role cable TV appearances, social media and “authenticity” play in the vetting of a running mate.
“Media changes how we evaluate candidates, and there’s something true about how the public responds to, for example, organic social media content,” says Katherine Haenschen, a Northeastern University political media expert. “It’s all about authenticity,” she says. “That’s what people really take their cues from in organic social media content from politicians and elected officials — are they real?”
Walz, a former high school teacher, football coach and six-term congressman, seemed to quickly become the darling of a largely progressive corner of the internet after he called Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, and former President Donald Trump “weird.”
