Gov. Tim Walz fused his everyman personality with an optimistic progressive message to win the most important audition of his political career the past few weeks, winning the quick admiration of Democratic activists — and Vice President Kamala Harris, who named Walz as her running mate Tuesday.
“As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he’s delivered for working families like his own. We are going to build a great partnership. We start out as underdogs but I believe together, we can win this election,” Harris said in a statement announcing her pick.
Harris’ selection of Walz rockets the former geography teacher from Midwest obscurity into the highest stratosphere of American politics, potentially joining Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale as Minnesotan vice presidents.
Walz’s selection follows his splashy arrival on the national stage during a series of high-profile TV interviews since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race last month and threw his weight behind his vice president.
Walz, who tends to talk in a Diet Mountain Dew-fueled, regular guy patois, has impressed Democrats with his ability to communicate the party’s message, while using a one-word zinger — “weird” — to hammer Republicans for book bans and pushing to outlaw abortion nationwide.
The two-term governor, who also served a dozen years in Congress, has racked up an impressive legislative record, especially in his second term. He signed bills to create a paid family and medical leave program; provide for universal free school meals; legalize recreational marijuana; sharply increase tax credits for low-income families; and boost sales and gas taxes for transportation and housing.
“Governor Walz has been a strong leader, a great partner with the Legislature, and is an excellent choice for vice president,” said Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park. “We worked together over the last two years on the most productive session in Minnesota in decades, passing policies that will help Minnesotans build better lives for themselves and their families.”
Minnesota Republicans say Walz has changed the North Star State for the worse. Minnesota House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, wrote recently that “past two years featured some of the most extreme and irresponsible policies we’ve ever seen in our state,” citing tax and fee increases, unsustainable new spending, energy mandates that will hike rates and a rise in the cost of Uber and Lyft rides.
Walz brings a resume that suggests both achievement and middle class roots: He was a high school teacher and assistant football coach in the southern Minnesota city of Mankato, population 45,000, before his election to Congress in 2006, becoming the first Democrat to win the 1st Congressional District in more than a decade.
He retired from the National Guard after 24 years in 2005 with the rank of command sergeant major, which made him the highest ranking enlisted man to ever serve in the U.S. Congress. Walz underwent surgery to restore his hearing, damaged after years of exposure to artillery ranges. He recently said he can hunt pheasants better than the GOP vice presidential nominee, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance.
Expect Walz to post up in the so-called blue wall states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, where the Harris campaign hopes his middle class demeanor will appeal to white, non-college voters who comprise a strong plurality of those battleground states.
A top Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor operative said Walz is well positioned to help Harris carry those crucial states.
“Tim Walz is a great pick because in addition to his blue collar background and his cultural fit with the blue wall states, as governor his accomplishments are mostly about improving the lives of middle class and working families,” said Jeff Blodgett, who was chief strategist for Sens. Paul Wellstone and Al Franken. “This ticket can now powerfully argue that they are the team that is squarely on the side of America’s working families.”
BY J. PATRICK COOLICAN
