Tim Walz and JD Vance were both picked to win the Rust Belt. What sets them apart?

Democrats and Republicans are set for a battle over the industrial midwest and the Rust Belt this year — and their vice presidential picks show it.

Kamala Harris’s selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Tuesday was a sign that her campaign has no plans to cede any ground in Wisconsin, Michigan or Pennsylvania —  three states that have been critical in the past three election cycles. The selection of Walz, an affable football coach, former Army National Guardsman, and high school teacher, was a starting gun in the battle for the white working class that backed Trump in 2016.

JD Vance, meanwhile, has built a national brand around being a son of Appalachia whosebackground inspired both a strong social conservatism as well as a populist economic bent that mirrors Trump’s own. Vance, like his running mate, rails against multinational trade deals he blames for sending manufacturing centers overseas and was the lone Republican member of Congress to show up on a picket line in 2023.

So what similarities can be drawn between the two midwestern politicians’ platforms, and where does the divide fall?

Despite all the grief Vance is likely to give the Harris campaign over the current state of the US economy, issues of trade and labor policy are among the greatest areas of agreement between Walz and his new archrival.

First, let’s take the minimum wage. Walz, as a Democrat, carved out a careful moderate stance when the issue of pay rates for Uber and Lyft drivers came up under his tenure. Blocking a minimum pay rate bill that was causing the two companies to threaten to leave the state, Walz worked with rideshare companies to write a different bill which he signed into law this year — drivers are still expected to see their rates