Trump, Harris deploy running mates to wage class warfare over 'what middle America is'

• Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the running mate of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, criticized the Republican ticket of Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance as out of touch.
• Vance fired back in part by by touting his poor upbringing, and has since slammed Harris for wearing allegedly pricey jewelry in fundraising ads.
• The opening clash shows each presidential running mate vying to establish their ticket as being more authentic, more relatable and more in tune with the average American than their opponent's.

With their running mate selections, Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have opened up a new front in the battle for the White House: Winning over the Average Joe.

Courting "Real America" is hardly a novel campaign strategy — but it's one that Trump, a billionaire real estate magnate and media mogul, and Harris, a San Francisco career prosecutor turned politician, haven't leaned into.

In a country where roughly 130 million registered voters are either lower or middle income, however, waging class warfare is just good politics.

Enter Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, two running mates whose modest backgrounds are central to their political personas.

In his debut on the Democratic ticket this week, Walz wasted no time trying to paint Vance as an out-of-touch elitist.

"Like all regular people I grew up with in the heartland, JD studied at Yale," Walz joked at a campaign rally with Harris in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening.

Vance "had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and then wrote a best seller trashing that community," Walz continued.

"Come on!" said the governor. "That's not what Middle America is."

The attack portrayed Trump's vice presidential pick as the