At the top of his first speech as her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz turned to U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and declared, “Thank you for bringing back the joy.” The next day, Ms. 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 few days later by saying, “We have a lot of bad things coming up,” and predicting that the U.S. could fall into an economic depression unseen since the dark days of 1929 or even another world war.
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 that 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.
Mr. Walz’s relentless positivity is meant to give supporters a jolt of new energy and keep the momentum that Ms. Harris has built.
Mr. Walz spent his first week of campaigning traveling to swing States with Ms. Harris and underscoring the point.
“This idea of caring for our neighbour... and just the sense that people go through things, that’s who we are,” he said. “It is not about mocking. It is not name-calling.”
President Joe Biden often ended his speeches saying he had never been more optimistic. But he built his now-shuttered reelection bid around branding Mr. Trump an existential threat to democracy.
Ms. Harris’s campaign still relies on many of the same themes, decrying Mr. Trump as a threat to democracy, warning that he will 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 Mr. Walz insisting that smiles were more powerful than insults, he and Ms. Harris have continued their share of denunciations.
Still, even before she named Mr. Walz her running mate, Ms. Harris was suggesting that she could help make politics fun again.
She now tells crowds that she and her running mate “both believe in lifting people up, not knocking them down.”
Mr. Trump’s 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 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.
Mr. Trump has tried to harness that with campaign appearances having a long list of warnings that have veered into the apocalyptic, saying that if he is not elected, “we are not going to have a country anymore,” and that “the only thing standing between you and its obliteration is me”.
Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, Mr. Trump’s running mate, has drawn a sharp contrast with Mr. Walz. Mr. Vance has been cheered on the right for being an aggressive fighter on behalf of Mr. Trump.
“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 recognise that what is going on in this country is a disgrace,” Mr. Vance said at a campaign stop in Michigan.
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