Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's ability to crystalize several Democratic lines of attack into one viral word — "weird" — helped catapult him to the top of the veepstakes over the past two weeks.

• Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro had seemed like the front-runner heading into Vice President Harris' one-on-one interviews this past weekend, Axios' Zachary Basu writes.
• But Walz's record in Minnesota along with his happy-warrior persona and facility with attacks like "weird" ultimately put him over the top.

🗳️ What we're watching: Harris is making a high-stakes bet that she can win Pennsylvania even without its popular Democratic governor on the ticket.

• The party's left flank wanted Walz, and Republicans have already criticized him as a radical and Harris as captive to progressives.
• One GOP strategist told Axios the Walz pick is the "first break we've caught since the Biden switcheroo."
• But Democrats say they're confident that Walz's communication skills and Midwestern-ness can deflate those attacks.

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Texas, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Florida have the highest share of uninsured residents, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick and Kavya Beheraj report.

• 🩺 How it works: Three of those four states — Texas, Wyoming and Florida — are among the small group of holdouts that never adopted Obamacare's Medicaid expansion.

Massachusetts, D.C. and Hawai'i have the lowest uninsured rates.

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Gabrielle Thomas competes in the women's 200m today, winning her first gold medal.