PHILADELPHIA — Sen. J.D. Vance (R‑OH) took his first shot at Gov. Tim Walz (D‑MN) on Tuesday, calling Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate a “double down choice for bad leadership.”
Vance did not address Walz during a stump speech held in South Philadelphia, instead bringing to the microphone families hurt by what he described as Harris’s failed border policies. He tied those policies to crime and a nationwide spike in drug deaths.
“I have to ask, why is it necessary? Why are they suffering?” Vance said before detailing his own upbringing with a mother who struggled with addiction. “And the answer is because we have a leadership that is failing.”
But in a Q&A session held with reporters after his remarks, Vance, who former President Donald Trump chose as his running mate last month, laid into the man he could …