Tim Walz campaigns with John McCain’s son as Kamala Harris lags in Arizona

Tim Walz is campaigning in Arizona with Native American leaders as polling shows the vice president lags in the state.

The Minnesota governor attended events this week with Ruben Gallego, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Arizona, and Jim McCain, the son of late Republican senator John McCain. The younger McCain announced earlier this year that he had switched parties and plans to vote for Harris in this election.

“I made that choice because I believe we must stand up for what is right, for the values we have all fought for in this room, for the decency, for the leadership that puts our country first,” he said at the time, invoking his father’s old campaign slogan.

Jim McCain, a US Marine Corps veteran, talked about former president Donald Trump mocking his father, who as a Navy pilot famously was shot down in Vietnam before becoming a prisoner of war.

“They've made light of it, and it's been a very painful experience, but it's also why we continue to stand up for the values that we know are true in this country,” he said.

Governor Tim Walz touted his work with the late Arizona Senator Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) during an event at a Veterans of Foreign Wars hall with McCain’s son Jim. ((Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images))

The Harris campaign has made repeated overtures to Republicans, receiving the support of Mesa, Arizona mayor John Giles and former staffers for McCain, among others.

Walz, a veteran of the Army National Guard, thanked the younger McCain and commented how the late senator made an effort to reach out to veterans even when he was a member of the House of Representatives.

“This probably won't surprise you, when you're kind of a junior member of the House, senators don't have any damn idea who you are,” he said. “John McCain knew your first name when you walked by, and that meant a lot, that he took the time to learn and know people's names.”

Arizona is becoming a battleground that some Democrats fear is falling out of their hands. Joe Biden was the first Democrat to win it since 1996 in 2020. But an AARP poll of Arizona recently showed Trump with a two-point lead in the state.

The same day as Walz’s appearance with Jim McCain, JD Vance campaigned in Tucson. Vance attacked Harris for her remarks on The View that “there is not a thing that comes to mind” in terms of what she would have done differently than Biden.

“Kamala’s entire campaign is running on: she doesn’t even know who Joe Biden is,” he said. “Her entire campaign is to run as much she can, as far as she can, from Joe Biden and his disastrous record. So you would think that when she’s asked the question, ‘Well, what has Joe Biden done that you disagree with?’ that she might actually have a halfway decent answer.”

Early voting in Arizona kicked off on Tuesday. Gallego’s opponent for Senate, former television news anchor Kari Lake, has spread the lie that the 2020 election was stolen and refused to concede in her failed race for governor in 2022.

On Wednesday, Lake and Gallego squared off in a debate.

Later in the day, Walz campaigned with Native American leaders in the Gila River Indian Community. Native Americans played a crucial role in Biden’s 2020 victory and Gallego has actively courted them.

In addition, Harris and Walz have sought to fix Democrats’ bleeding support among Latinos, particularly with Latino men. A USA Today/Suffolk University poll found that 57 percent of Latinos in Arizona plan to vote for Harris, compared with 38 percent who plan to vote for Trump.

But the gender breakdown is even more stark than the racial one, as 51 percent of Latino men between the ages of 18 and 34 in Arizona said they support Trump compared to 37 percent of Latino men in that group who support Harris. Conversely, Latinas of all ages prefer Harris to Trump.

Later in the evening, Walz held a get-out-the-vote effort in Tucson where he excoriated Trump for his demonization of migrants.

“At the only debate between Kamala and Donald Trump, Donald Trump stood on that stage and said they are eating dogs and they're eating cats,” he said.

In a sign of the focus on Hispanic outreach, the rally opened with a mariachi band.