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Vice President Kamala Harris has tapped Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate in November, just weeks ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
“One of the things that stood out to me about Tim is how his convictions on fighting for middle class families run deep,” Harris said in a statement. “It’s personal.”
The presumptive Democratic party nominee went on to list Walz’s achievements as governor, including cutting taxes for working families and passing a law to provide paid family and medical leave. He is expected to tout those accomplishments, and more, as he tries to appeal to voters and, likely, debate Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, former president Donald Trump’s running mate.
“It is the honor of a lifetime to join [Harris] in this campaign,” Walz said in a statement posted to social media. “I’m all in.”
Although Walz isn’t the most widely known candidate, he is a respected and long-term Democratic politician.
At 17, Waltz enlisted in the Army National Guard, where he would stay for the next 24 years, he then had a second career as a high school teacher and football coach. In 2006, he was elected to his first of six terms representing Minnesota’s First Congressional District. He’s now in his second term as governor, having secured the post in 2018 and again in 2022.
Voters may also recognize Walz as the originator of the Democrat’s labeling of Trump, Vance, and other Republicans as ‘weird.’ Walz, who chairs the Democratic Governors Association, told the hosts of MSNBC’s Morning Joe that “these guys are just weird,” and argued that Vance “gets it all wrong” when he talks about small-town values. That message has now become a core part of his party’s attacks against Republicans around the country.
Walz offers Harris a vice president that can both make inroads in rural America and tout a series of achievements that leftists can appreciate.
Under Walz’s tenure, Minnesota enacted investments that are viewed highly favorably by most Democrats, including funding for affordable housing. His government also enacted a tax credit aimed at low-income parents, established the goal of a carbon-free electrical grid by 2040, and made abortion a “fundamental right.”
Walz has also championed issues like free school meals for students and benefits for workers, such as increased protections for workers in Amazon warehouses and construction sites, which has won him the support of labor unions like the United Auto Workers. In October, Walz joined striking autoworkers on the picket lines outside a Stellantis facility.
He also signed bills ensuring voting rights for the formerly incarcerated, driver’s licenses for all residents regardless of immigration status, paid family and medical leave, and legalized recreational marijuana.
And, in a plus for Harris, those progressive accomplishments come dressed in folksy clothing and Midwest sensibilities. Walz is a longtime hunter who earned the endorsement of the National Rifle Association and was promoted by pro-firearm groups before he favored gun control legislation after the 2018 Parkland high school shooting.
However, Walz is likely to face continued criticism for his handling of the riots that broke out after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020. He’s also been questioned for his pivot toward liberalism as a governor after representing a more conservative constituency in Congress.