Tim Walz is a very smart choice. It tells us a lot about Kamala Harris.

The Minnesota governor is a progressive from rural America who will be a pit bull on the campaign trail.

As I’ve been saying, I’d have been fine with any of the contenders Vice President Harris was deciding among for her VP running mate. It’s been an embarrassment of riches.

But the choice of Tim Walz is a bold one that tells us a lot of good things about Harris. Walz is unapologetically progressive, not a moderate like Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro or a politician always mindful to talk about “reaching out” to the GOP, like Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, even as Walz represents small town and rural America.

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Walz, since his re-election in 2022, when he also helped flip the Senate in Minnesota to the Democrats, securing a trifecta in the legislature, worked with Democrats to get abortion rights enshrined into law; signed a bill to allow undocumented immigrants to have driver’s licenses; passed key gun reform legislation; legalized recreational marijuana; and signed an executive order protecting rights of transgender people seeking gender-affirming care.

Walz has been an avid supporter of LGBTQ rights and marriage equality since back when it was poison to have such positions in rural America, when he was a congressman from a rural area of Minnesota. Walz walked the picket line with the striking United Auto Workers last year, and was a top pick of the UAW and organized labor.

I say it’s a bold move on the part of Harris only because Walz is less known than the other contenders and will have to introduce himself to America in a short amount of time, and he also is not from a state where even if the VP pick adds just one percentage point it could make the difference, like Pennsylvania. Shapiro was an attractive choice for that reason. Generally, VP running mates don’t make much difference electorally, as history has shown. But when it’s so close—as Pennsylvania is—it could help.

But Harris had other priorities. Shapiro had come under criticism for his comments on Gaza protestors, which would have had him dogged by protests and caused a distraction, and possibly depress turnout elsewhere, like Michigan. Those kinds of things could be smoothed over, however, if Harris truly wanted Shapiro.(VP running mates usually “clarify” their past positions to be in line with the presidential candidate, as we saw JD Vance do on abortion.)

I think first and foremost Harris chose Walz because he melded with her political philosophy and yet is from a very different world.

Though she’s a former district attorney from San Francisco and he’s a former football coach and teacher from rural Nebraska and Minnesota, they have the same progressive beliefs about how government should be serving the American people. She likely felt the chemistry, and their differences in experience only underscore that we should not be divided by big cities vs. small towns and rural America—which is the divisive idea that Trump and MAGA thrive on and promote every day, lashing out at urban elites.

And Walz, in his auditioning in recent weeks on TV talk shows, showed himself to be enormously resourceful—he came up with the brilliant “weird” campaign against Trump and Vance—while making it clear he’d be there to do what a VP running mate does: take on the role of the pit bull, crushing the opposition, while always being in the supportive role of the presidential candidate and not being overly ambitious. Harris needs someone loyal who’s not going to steal the spotlight while also serving effectively—as she has done with President Biden—and Walz fit the bill.

Choosing the VP running mate is one of the first big decisions Kamala Harris has made, and it tells us a lot about her keen and thoughtful judgment. She kept the base of the party in mind, thinking about what would get them excited. All too often, Democrats make decisions that are about trying to bring in Republicans—“reach across the aisle”—only to get burned, not understanding that the most important thing is to turn out the base.

Harris made the base a priority in this decision but also made sure to bring attention to a different part of the base, one that reflects the Midwest and rural America. She likely thought about what would cause division in the base at a time when we need to be unified, and she certainly thought about what would bring the base together and energize it.

That is a very smart candidate, and this decision will serve Kamala Harris well.