What a Harris-Walz ticket could mean for criminal justice reform
by Ella Lee and Zach Schonfeld - 08/11/24 6:00 AM ET
When Vice President Harris was named Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee, she put her past role as a prosecutor at the heart of her pitch to voters – and used it as an early attack line against her opponent who has faced a litany of legal troubles over the last year.
“I took on perpetrators of all kinds: predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain,” Harris said last month at her first presidential campaign rally. “So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type.”
Her selection this week of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate further solidifies a focus on criminal justice given that during Walz’ tenure, the state passed sweeping reforms – particularly in the wake of George Floyd’s 2020 killing in Minneapolis. The civil unrest that followed, however, quickly became a GOP line of attack against Walz and his handling of the protests.
Harris’s record, too, has been put to much scrutiny, with a particular focus on her time as California’s attorney general before she became a senator.
But with Harris’s prosecutorial background and Walz’s progressive record, the newly minted ticket is well situated to make criminal justice central to their campaign, particularly in areas of police and prison reform as well as gun control.
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https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4820925-kamala-harris-tim-walz-criminal-justice/
