Vice President Kamala Harris has tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, adding a popular Midwestern executive to the Democratic ticket as the party prepares to hold on to key northern battleground states, three sources with knowledge of the matter said. this fall.
In electing Walz, who is in his second term and has also served 12 years in Congress, Harris will have a No. 2 candidate with a proven record of winning over white working-class voters in Rust Belt states, while also boasting a strong. progressive record.
Democrats will hope the mix of attributes will help the Harris-Walz ticket boost support in the once-blue-wall states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan — longtime Democratic strongholds at the presidential level, which Donald Trump flipped in 2016 and Joe Biden returned. 2020. This year, they were seen as the most viable path to victory for Biden, and now for Harris.
Walz, 60, was initially seen as a long shot in a field full of rising party stars, some of whom have been touted as future presidential contenders, including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Now, Harris has picked a sometimes-people-oriented, Midwestern reputation for a managing partner who has also proven to be a reliable attack dog against Trump.
Walz’s experiences earlier in life as a public school teacher and member of the Army National Guard could bolster his ability to speak to the diverse voting blocs Harris needs to win in November, including veterans and organized labor.
But Walz is starting the campaign largely unknown: A new NPR/PBS/Marist poll released Tuesday morning found that 71% of Americans either have no opinion of Walz or have never heard of him. Another 17% viewed him positively, and 12% negatively. Both campaigns will now race to define it.
A native of Nebraska, Walz joined the National Guard at age 17 and has served for more than two decades, serving both domestically and overseas. He then was a high school social studies teacher and football coach in Mankato, about 80 miles south of Minneapolis, before winning a congressional seat in 2006 in a largely rural and agricultural district.
He represented Minnesota’s 1st District for 12 years before running for governor in 2018. During a 1995 reckless driving arrest in Nebraska, Walz failed a field sobriety test, according to an officer, and came up in the House and gubernatorial campaigns, but was elected anyway. Walz called it a “gut check moment” in an interview in Minneapolis Star tribune In 2018, he said that he then stopped drinking.
Walz’s allies have often talked about how her background representing rural communities is much needed in the party, noting her re-election in a red-trending district — evenly split in 2012 but swinging heavily to Trump in 2016. — and could help Democrats compete for some moderate or conservative voters who are skeptical of Trump this time around.
Walz had the most Capitol Hill experience of anyone on the short list, Harris reported, with his connections in Congress that could help the new president action a legislative agenda.
As governor, Walz was in control a plethora of progressive policy achievements — especially in his second term, when Democrats control both houses of the Legislature.
He signed laws that protect abortion rightslegalization recreational marijuanalimiting gun access and provides legal asylum to trans youth who are gender-affirming and have limited access to other health care elsewhere. Elsewhere, progressives have pointed to Minnesota as an example of how to effectively use the power of the legislative trifecta to achieve policy priorities.
Walz also passed expansive laws paid family leaveprohibited most non-compete agreementsprovides universal school meals for students and Insulin price capping in Minnesota (three years ago Biden did so nationally) — colleagues and supporters said the list of legislative wins would translate nationally.
In recent days, Walz has gone on a publicity stunt in a series of media appearances, testing the line of attack against Trump and Sen. JD Vance.
In an interview in late July MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” he gained wider attention by bashing Trump and Vance as “weird.” Harris himself started using “strange” line almost immediately.
MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump super PAC, immediately dismissed Walz as “incompetent” in a statement and called her and Harris “both far-left radicals who don’t know how to govern.” Caroline Leavitt, Trump’s campaign press secretary, called Walz a “West Coast buff” who is trying to “reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State.”
Walz used his campaign media appearances to attack the GOP ticket by building on his strong cultural ties to the middle of the country and demonstrate how he would campaign to win over those voters to Democrats.
“I know people like JD Vance don’t know anything about small-town America,” Walz said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on July 23. “There were 400 people in my town, 24 children in my graduating class, 12 of them cousins. And he gets it all wrong.”
“It’s not about hate. It’s not about falling. The golden rule there is mind your own damn business,” Walz said, adding that “Republican policies are what’s destroying rural America. They divided us. They are in our exam rooms. What do they tell us? books to read”.
“I think what Kamala Harris knows is bringing people together around shared values, strong public schools, strong unions that build a middle class, affordable and accessible health care,” Walz said.
Choosing Walz does not come without risk. While his selection underscores Democrats’ efforts to aggressively go after Midwestern voters, it does not bring a state advantage in a particular battleground: Minnesota has not gone red in a presidential race since 1972.
Additionally, as Walz’s stock has risen in recent days, critics have again raised questions about his stewardship. These include concerns about delays in calling up the National Guard as a result of the protests that engulfed Minneapolis following the May 2020 police killing of George Floyd, as well as The largest pandemic fraud case in the US it happened under his watch. MAGA Inc. struck both items in a press release after news of Walz’s selection broke.
Another likely responsibility for Walz’s VP chances in the first place was his role as co-chair of the Democratic National Convention rules committee — a job that helped Harris quickly become the leader in the chaotic days after Biden dropped out of the race. the party’s presumptive candidate.
Any potential criticism of a conflict of interest was thoroughly debated when exactly zero high-profile challengers challenged Harris for the nomination.
Valz told reporters that “everyone [who] they can make their name “to be nominated” if they want.