The biggest moments from the day Philadelphia was the center of the political universe

A random Tuesday in August will go down in political history as a day for Philadelphia to remember.

In the morning, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance swooped down for an unconventional rally-merch sale hybrid largely focused on bashing Vice President Kamala Harris. Just hours later, Harris jetted into town to unveil Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in front of an energetic crowd at Temple University’s Liacouras Center. The exuberant rally kicked off a multi-battleground state tour and marked Harris’ first campaign appearance since officially becoming the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.

The two events in Philadelphia underscore the importance of Pennsylvania and its 19 electoral votes. In some polls of Pennsylvania voters taken before Walz’s pick, Trump maintains a narrow lead, while Harris wins in others.

Here are five key takeaways from Philly’s big day.

Gov. Josh Shapiro readily embraced and defended his Jewish faith in what appeared to be a bold rebuttal to Republican nominee Sen. JD Vance’s comments earlier that day suggesting Shapiro was passed over because of antisemitism among Democrats.

In one of the most memorable moments of the night, Shapiro looked at the camera and said to the world: “I lean on my family, and I lean on my faith, which calls me to serve, and I am proud of my faith.”

At the end of his impassioned remarks, where the governor’s voice began to go hoarse from his shouting, Shapiro quoted the Pirkei Avot, an ancient text of Jewish ethics: “No one is required to complete the task, but neither are we free to refrain from it.”

Vance said at his own campaign event in Philadelphia Tuesday morning that Shapiro had to “run away” from his Jewish faith, but the governor’s proclamation that evening at the Liacouras Center showed that he was doing the exact opposite and was, instead, using the teachings of Judaism to promote civic engagement.

“That means that each of us has a responsibility to get off the satellites, to get in the game and to do our part,” Shapiro said of the line from the Pirkei Avot. “Are you ready to do your part? Are you ready to form a more perfect union? Are you ready to build an America where, no matter what you look like, where you come from, who you love or who you pray to, that this will be a place for you?”

Walz was not afraid to get personal during his very first speech as Harris’ running mate. He shared stories of how his students inspired him to run for office and the journey that he and his wife, Minnesota first lady Gwen, embarked on with IVF treatments.

In what at times resembled the joke-punchline rhythm of a comedy show with laughs from the crowd to match, Walz quickly got personal in other ways, taking digs at Trump, Vance, and Republicans with his blunt, Midwestern sense of humor. “There’s a golden rule [in Minnesota], mind your own damn business,” Walz said about attempts from Republican legislators to curb reproductive rights.

The rowdy crowd then responded by chanting “Mind your own damn business!” to which Walz laughed and responded: “These guys are after my heart chanting ‘mind your own damn business,’ that feels good.”

Walz, the man behind tagging Trump and Vance as “weird,” reached a different level of humor Tuesday evening saying that he “can’t wait” to debate the U.S. senator from Ohio if Vance is “willing to get off the couch and show up,” making a veiled reference to a baseless claim that circulated about Vance online.

Then, with a tug of his ear, Walz asked the crowd, “See what I did there?”

Walz used the same joking tone to contrast his working-class background with his Republican opponent.

“Like all regular people I grew up with in the heartland, JD studied at Yale and had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires and then wrote a best-seller trashing that community,” Walz said before exclaiming,“Come on!”

Trump was not absolved from Walz’s roasts. “[Trump] throws in the face of the COVID crisis. He drove our economy into the ground and make no mistake, violent crime was up under Donald Trump,” Walz said, prepping for yet another punchline: “That’s not even counting the crimes he committed,” alluding to Trump’s felony conviction.

The Philadelphia rally was the first time since becoming the official Democratic nominee that Harris took the campaign stage. She acknowledged that momentous occasion, but used most of her time Tuesday evening to introduce Walz to the world and highlight the qualities that could help the ticket win in battleground states, like Pennsylvania.

Before Walz was the Midwestern joke maker on the national stage, he was in the National Guard, a teacher, a football coach, and a congressman for a rural area, Harris told the crowd.

Harris paid special attention to Walz’s background as a football coach and teacher, calling him “Coach Walz” throughout her speech and recounting how the governor “saw the potential in kids who sometimes didn’t even see it in themselves.”

Walz was the adviser for his school’s first Gay-Straight Alliance and, under Walz, Minnesota became the fourth state to offer free breakfast and lunch for all students.

She joked that Walz, a hunter, was known as “one of Capitol Hill’s best marksmen” (since then, the campaign has started selling camouflage Harris-Walz hats), and highlighted Walz’s ability to reach across the aisle and win in a purple district.

U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Pa.) said that Walz’s time representing small towns and rural communities in Congress bodes well for the campaign’s prospects in Pennsylvania’s purple and red counties. Rep. Brendan Boyle (D., Pa.) echoed a similar sentiment, citing Walz’s ability to win in and represent a rural congressional district that Trump won by 15 points in 2016 and 10 in 2020.

Shapiro’s fiery remarks before welcoming Harris and her VP pick to the stage may have further emphasized his ability to make himself the main character even when it may not be entirely welcome.

During his interview for the VP slot, Shapiro asked a lot of questions about the role and what his responsibilities would be. “He was trying to like, interview her back,” one person with knowledge of the process and Harris’ team’s reaction to it said. “He’s not a No. 2, he just didn’t fit the assignment,” The Inquirer reported.

Several factors — both professional and personal — went into Shapiro being passed over for Harris’ running mate.

The governor faced more public scrutiny than Walz did, but efforts from Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle L. Parker and U.S. Sen. John Fetterman may have contributed to the narrative that Shapiro is too ambitious to be second-in-line.

Shapiro himself has acknowledged that he’s been drawn to top executive roles in the past and told the Harris campaign he struggled with stepping away from being Pennsylvania’s governor.

“I love you, Philly,” Shapiro said moments into his applause-fueled appearance Tuesday. “And you know what else I love? I love being your governor... you all fill my heart.” He added that he loves “getting s— done” for Pennsylvanians.

Despite his best attempts to run from the Walz-popularized term, Vance’s campaign event in South Philly, located next to an IKEA, could best be described as weird.

Even though the Trump campaign referred to the event as “press remarks” there were still hundreds of Trump-Vance fans donning rally-ready Trump merchandise.

To make matters even more peculiar, Vance stood in front of a background that alternated between the Trump-Vance logo and a big sign that said “Kamala Chaos.” But at times the bottom of the sign was cut off by the crowd behind Vance, making visible only “KAMALA” and inspiring the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, a union that says it represents over 170,000 behind-the-scenes entertainment workers, to mock the Trump campaign and say it didn’t hire union workers for the Philadelphia event.

Vance attempted throughout his speech to connect the vice president with the “opioid epidemic” and being the “border czar” for the Biden-Harris administration — though that was never her role — by bringing up three individuals with family members who struggled with addiction.

Vance abruptly shifted to taking questions from reporters. He touched on several topics, including Walz and his 2021 “childless cat lady comments” that a reporter said offended women.

To this, a woman in the crowd shouted: “This cat lady loves you!”

“I think American families are good and government policy should be more pro-family,” Vance said. “Now, if the media wants to get offended about a sarcastic remark I made before I even ran for the United States Senate, then the media is entitled to get offended.”

Vance then turned the conversation to Harris and the border once again, saying he was ”offended” that Harris “opened up the American southern border and allowed fentanyl to come into our communities,” which is false.