WASHINGTON – At the top of his first speech as her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz turned to Vice President Kamala Harris and declared, “Thank you for bringing back the joy.” The next day, Harris took the theme a step further, branding the Democratic ticket “joyful warriors.”
Contrast that with former President Donald Trump, who opened a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida a few days later by saying, “We have a lot of bad things coming up," and predicting the U.S. could fall into an economic depression unseen since the dark days of 1929 or even another world war.
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“I think that our country is, right now, in the most dangerous position it’s ever been in, from an economic standpoint, from a safety standpoint," Trump said Thursday.
Democrats are playing up their sunnier outlook, promoting the idea that voters can be inspired to support someone and not just cast their ballot against the other side. The Trump campaign argues their candidate is reflecting the dour mood of the country and dismisses the idea that a growing contrast in tone and upbeat attitude will decide the presidency.
Two-thirds of Americans reported feeling very or somewhat pessimistic about the state of politics, according to polling by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research from last month. Roughly 7 in 10 said things in the country are heading in the wrong direction.
Jason Miller, a senior adviser to the former president, said people don’t care about “vibe checks.”
“That’s not making gas or food or housing less expensive,” Miller said.
Walz promotes positivity
Still, just how hard Harris is betting on the opposite approach is evident in her decision to pick Walz, whose personal story includes being on the coaching staff of a high school football team that had gone winless just a few years earlier to clinching a state championship in 1999.
The Minnesota governor's relentless positivity is meant to give supporters a jolt of new energy and keep the momentum that Harris has built after President Joe Biden — facing mounting pressure from within his own party and increasingly pessimistic views about his chances in November — stepped aside and endorsed his vice president.
Walz spent his first week as Harris' running mate traveling to swing states with Harris and underscored the point during a rally in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, celebrating what he said was "the ability to talk about what can be good.”
“This idea of caring for our neighbor and kindness, and a hand up when somebody needs it. And just the sense that people go through things and to be able to be there when they need it, that’s who we are,” he said. “It’s not about mocking. It’s not name-calling.”
Biden often ended his speeches saying he'd never been more optimistic. But he built his now-shuttered reelection bid around branding Trump an existential threat to democracy. The president offered dire predictions about the former president, suggesting he'd dismantle the nation's founding principles should he retake the White House.
Harris’ campaign still relies on many of the same themes, decrying Trump as a threat to democracy, warning that he'll impose draconian limits to abortion and voting and that he will follow Project 2025, a plan championed by top conservatives to remake large swaths of the federal government.
And despite Walz insisting that smiles were more powerful than insults, he and Harris have continued their share of denunciations, decrying Trump’s conviction in New York on 34 felony counts in a hush-money case and his being found liable for fraudulent business practices and sexual abuse in civil court.
Still, even before she named Walz her running mate, Harris was suggesting that she could help make politics fun again.
“We love our country. And I believe it is the highest form of patriotism to fight for the ideals of our country,” Harris declared in campaign speeches before picking Walz. She now tells crowds that she and her running mate “both believe in lifting people up, not knocking them down.”
Paula Montagna, who went to see Harris and Walz at a rally outside Detroit last week, highlighted the shift in messaging since Harris took over from Biden.
“Kamala is so positive, and it’s nice to hear positive instead of negative,” Montagna said.
Trump team says their candidate is reflecting reality
Trump’s senior campaign advisers counter that the mood of the country right now is sour over the economy, the state of the U.S.-Mexico border and turmoil in the Middle East and beyond. They see their candidate as reflecting that reality rather than what they believe is a temporary exuberance igniting the Democratic base after months of discouragement over their ticket.
Trump has tried to harness that with his repeated predictions of stock market crashes and war. His campaign appearances have included a long list of other warnings that have veered into the apocalyptic, saying that if he’s not elected, “we’re not going to have a country anymore,” that “the only thing standing between you and its obliteration is me," and that under a Harris administration, “Social Security will buckle and collapse” and "the suburbs will be overrun with violent crime and savage foreign gangs.”
During his Republican National Convention speech last month, where his advisers said Trump would seem changed and more personal after surviving an attempted assassination, the former president did strike a different tone — at least to start.
He said early on that he had “a message of confidence, strength and hope” and sought to “launch a new era of safety, prosperity and freedom for citizens of every race, religion, color and creed.”
But by the end, Trump had returned to predictions of doom, twice warning, “Bad things are going to happen.”
Ohio Sen. JD Vance, Trump's running mate, has drawn a sharp contrast with Walz. Vance has been cheered on the right for being an aggressive fighter on behalf of the former president, particularly when engaging with reporters.
"Right now, I am angry about what Kamala Harris has done to this country and done to the American southern border,” Vance said at a campaign stop in Michigan. “And I think most people in our country, they can be happy-go-lucky sometimes, they can enjoy things sometimes, and they can turn on the news and recognize that what’s going on in this country is a disgrace.”
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, not himself known for a sunny disposition, offered much the same assessment Friday at a conservative conference in Atlanta hosted by radio host Erick Erickson.
“The country is obviously in a bad mood,” McConnell said.
Trump supporters waiting to see him at a rally in Bozeman, Montana, said they felt the former president's campaign made them feel positive — even if his message often isn't.
“Just looking at the state of the country now, I don’t think Kamala Harris’ campaign is one of joy and hope. I think that's Trump's campaign,” said Alex Lustig, a 23-year-old from Billings, Montana.
Fred Scarlett, a 63-year-old retiree from Condon, Montana, said that "everyone understands that we need to be here to support Trump because he has never let us down.”
“They shoot at him," Scarlett said, "and he still keeps firing back.”
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Price reported from Palm Beach, Florida. Associated Press writers Bill Barrow in Atlanta, Matthew Brown in Bozeman, Montana, Joey Cappelletti in Detroit, Haven Daley in Glendale, Arizona, Linley Sanders in Washington, and Mark Vancleave in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, contributed to this report.