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Tim Walz, the second-term Minnesota governor with a folksy demeanor, gained a spot on the Democratic ticket as Kamala Harris’ vice presidential choice, two sources close to the campaign tell NPR.
The former high school geography teacher and National Guard veteran, who helped green light a slate of progressive policy priorities in Minnesota, could help win over voters in Midwestern swing states.
In recent interviews, Walz has described former President Donald Trump’s policy priorities as “weird” and said Democrats would expand reproductive health, voting and workers’ rights, if elected.
But the 60-year-old governor could also face questions about his response to riots in Minneapolis following the 2020 murder of George Floyd and widespread fraud during COVID-19 under a federal program intended to feed kids. Audits have suggested lapses in oversight by the state Department of Education.
Walz is fond of one-liners and dad jokes that he uses to poke at political rivals. He recycles them often. He’s also not afraid to look frumpy and often sports a plain T-shirt and a ballcap to more casual occasions instead of a suit. He talks fast — a symptom of being a former high school football coach — which often makes him trip over words or leads to some confusing run-on sentences.
The announcement comes as Democrats have rallied around Harris following President Biden's decision to end his reelection campaign. With Harris as the party's new leader, Democrats have seen renewed enthusiasm at rallies and with donors. The Harris campaign says the vice president and her running mate will begin a tour battleground states, starting today in Philadelphia and ending Saturday in Las Vegas.
Harris, who became the official presidential nominee Monday evening, went with Walz over Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania — a crucial swing state Democrats will likely need to win the election.
From Nebraska to Minnesota politics
Walz was born and raised in rural Nebraska and enlisted in the Army National Guard at age 17. He frequently points to his upbringing in a small community, noting that several of his cousins were classmates.
He earned a social science degree from Chadron State College in Nebraska in 1989 funded by the GI Bill, then spent a year teaching in China through a Harvard University exchange program before returning to teach students in his home state. He met his wife, Gwen Whipple, while teaching. The pair moved to Minnesota in 1996 and taught at a high school in Mankato, Minn. Walz also spent time coaching football and was an assistant on a state title winning team.
As Walz was tiptoeing into politics, he took a group of students to a campaign rally for then-President George W. Bush. Walz said they were asked to leave because some were wearing stickers supporting Bush’s opponent, John Kerry.
“This individual says, ‘You’re not going to be allowed to enter, you’ve been deemed a threat,’” Walz told Minnesota Public Radio years after the exchange with a security guard. “It was a combination of being a little bit frustrated and a kind of epiphany moment of how it felt for people to be looked right through.”
Not long after that, he was making a move to run for Congress in a year when Democrats were recruiting candidates with military credentials.
After a race that focused on the Iraq war and state of the economy, Walz upset longtime Republican U.S. Rep. Gil Gutknecht in 2006. He represented southern Minnesota in Congress for more than a decade before announcing his bid for governor in 2017.
Walz won the race for governor over Republican Jeff Johnson.
Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, who Walz defeated in the primary for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party nomination, worked with him to usher in progressive policy wins at the Capitol.
“I have gotten to know Governor Walz from a very unique perspective. I have deep respect for his candidacy when he and I ran together for the same office,” Murphy said. “He's skilled. And he's been a great governor.”
In his first term, Walz faced a divided government — a Democrat-led House and GOP-led Senate. He worked with lawmakers in 2019 to pass a budget with wins for both sides — boosted spending for schools and a tax cut.
Former Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, a Republican, said he had a good working relationship with Walz.
“We found compromises that worked well for the state of Minnesota,” Gazelka said. “He did eventually agree to the tax cuts that I was pushing and, and I agreed to fund education at levels higher than I thought we should.”
But that relationship was tested as COVID-19 spread around the world and took hold in Minnesota.
Aiming to curb the spread of the virus, Walz ordered schools be emptied. Later, he ordered restaurants and houses of worship shut their doors and Minnesotans stay home and required that face masks be worn in public places.
The restrictions that were initially intended to be brief stretched on and some grew frustrated about the limitations on their lives and Walz’s authority.
In May of 2020, Minnesota faced another moment of crisis. In an incident screened around the world, Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck as he asked for help. Floyd died, and frustration ignited protests and riots around the city.
Walz called in thousands of National Guard soldiers and state troopers to police the Twin Cities, but not quickly enough to prevent the burning of a police precinct and looting of several businesses.
“We cannot have the looting and the recklessness that went on, we cannot have it because we can’t function as a society and I refuse to have it take away the attention of the state that we need to be working on,” Walz told reporters days into the riots.
Walz and Minneapolis Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey publicly disagreed over who should have taken charge. Gazelka, the former Senate majority leader, said the governor acted too late.
“I felt like he froze,” Gazelka said. “And that delayed getting the National Guard out three days beyond what Mayor Frey had requested. And that's just unacceptable to not be able to handle the crisis in a way that I think it should have been handled.”
The timing of the National Guard call-up is part of the presidential race already, with Trump taking credit for the soldiers being sent in after his administration’s conversations with the Walz administration.
Progressive wins
In 2022, Walz won reelection after campaigning on a promise to protect access to abortion services in Minnesota after the rollback of Roe v. Wade. And by the narrowest of margins, voters handed Democrats control of the state legislature.
In their first year with a government trifecta, Democrats checked off every item on their wish list: free breakfast and lunch for students, legal protections for abortion and those seeking gender-affirming care, new clean energy mandates for utility companies, restrictions on guns, legalized marijuana, restoration of voter rights to the formerly incarcerated and paid family and medical leave benefits for workers.
Education Minnesota President Denise Specht, who leads the state’s largest teachers’ union, said Walz hasn’t forgotten his teaching roots while in office.
“He's been a great governor to work with, you know, his record for investing in public education. Everything that he's done to improve working lives for working families, protecting collective bargaining,” Specht said. “He has a great track record that I think would resonate across this country.”
Walz’s policy wins helped launch the governor’s national profile. He became chair of the Democratic Governors Association and co-chair of the Democratic National Convention’s Rules Committee.
Asked about whether the raft of Minnesota policy changes would make him too progressive a candidate, Walz joked that he was a “monster” for supporting efforts to fund school lunches and guarantee legal protections for those seeking abortions.
“What a monster. Kids are eating, eating and having full bellies so they can go learn and women are making their own health care decisions,” Walz told CNN’s State of the Union in late July. “So if that's where they want to label me, I'm more than happy to take the label.”
With reporting from NPR's Deepa Shivaram and Tamara Keith
Copyright 2024 MPR News
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