Trump’s Plan for Attacking Tim Walz: Paint Him as a Bernie Sanders Liberal

The Trump team was all set for Josh Shapiro.

Former President Donald J. Trump’s political operation spent much of the past two weeks digging up potential attacks on Mr. Shapiro, the popular Pennsylvania governor, whom they saw as nearly certain to be chosen as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, according to two people with direct knowledge of the internal planning.

The logic was hard to dispute. The way the Trump team saw it, Mr. Shapiro could have done something running mates almost never do: enhance Ms. Harris’s prospects of winning a crucial battleground state, one that Mr. Trump’s own super PAC considers pivotal to blocking Democrats’ path to 270 electoral votes. Mr. Shapiro is viewed favorably by 61 percent of Pennsylvania voters, according to a recent Fox News poll; only a handful of elected officials have achieved comparable numbers in the recent tribal and polarized era of American politics.

Mr. Trump’s advisers thought that Mr. Shapiro’s image as a centrist could also have helped Ms. Harris with independent voters who are wary of her liberal record, offering balance to the new Democratic ticket.

Trump aides had compiled stacks of opposition research on Mr. Shapiro. They were ready to highlight his support of Israel — part of a plan to inflame the anti-Israel left and increase the chances of pro-Palestinian protests disrupting the Democratic National Convention in Chicago later this month.

But in recent days, that private view began to shift. Public reports indicated that Ms. Harris and her advisers were cooling on Mr. Shapiro amid a progressive campaign against him and a flurry of negative news stories about his time in office.

The Trump team came to see Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota as the safer choice for Ms.