Kamala Harris picked Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday (August 6, 2024), opting for the Minnesota Governor as the partner most likely to complement her in a historic — and bruising — bid for the White House.
Mr. Walz had been on a shortlist with a string of other Democratic figures seen as broadening Ms. Harris’s appeal as she sprints into the contest against Donald Trump. Aiming to make history as the first woman president, Ms. Harris — already a trailblazer as the first female and first Black and South Asian Vice President — has little time before Election Day on November 5.
Expectations had always been that Ms. Harris would pick a white man to balance the ticket — and the kind of Democrat who can help counter attacks from Republicans that she is too far to the left.
Who is Tim Walz?
Mr. Walz, a 60-year-old U.S. Army National Guard veteran and former teacher, was elected to a Republican-leaning district in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006 and served 12 years before being elected Governor of Minnesota in 2018.
As Governor, Mr. Walz has pushed a progressive agenda that includes free school meals, goals for tackling climate change, tax cuts for the middle class and expanded paid leave for Minnesota workers.
Mr. Walz has long advocated for women’s reproductive rights but also displayed a conservative bent while representing a rural district in the U.S. House, defending agricultural interests and backing gun rights.
As the state’s top executive, Mr. Walz mandated the use of face coverings during the COVID-19 pandemic and signed a law making marital rape illegal. He presided over several years of budget surpluses in Minnesota on the road to his 2022 reelection.
During that campaign, Mr. Walz touted the backing of several influential labour unions, including the state AFL-CIO, firefighters, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), teachers and others.
In the 2022 Governor’s race, Mr. Walz won with 52.27% to his Republican opponent’s 44.61%, although swaths of rural Minnesota voted for the opponent.
His tenure was marked by the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer who was convicted of murder. Mr. Walz assigned the state’s attorney general to lead the prosecution in the case, saying people “don’t believe justice can be served.”
Mr. Walz is “somewhat of a unicorn,” said Ryan Dawkins, a political science professor at Minnesota’s Carleton College – a man born in a small town in rural Nebraska capable of conveying Ms. Harris’ message to core Democratic voters, and those that the party has failed to reach in recent years.
Mr. Dawkins praised his ability to connect with rural voters. It is a group the Biden administration has tried to reach with infrastructure spending and other pragmatic policies, but with little show of messaging success so far.
While Mr. Walz has supported Democratic Party orthodoxy on issues ranging from legalised abortion and same-sex marriage to the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, he also racked up a centrist voting record during his congressional career.
He was a staunch defender of government support for farmers and military veterans, as well as gun-owner rights that won praise from the National Rifle Association, according to The Almanac of American Politics. He subsequently registered a failing grade with the NRA after supporting gun-control measures during his first campaign for Governor.
Mr. Walz’s shift from a centrist representing a single rural district in Congress to a more progressive politician as Governor may have been in response to the demands of voters in major cities like Minneapolis-St. Paul. But it leaves him open to Republican attacks, Mr. Dawkins said in a telephone interview.
“He runs the risk of reinforcing some of the worst fears people have of Kamala Harris being a San Francisco liberal,” Mr. Dawkins said.
Adding Midwest muscle
Ms. Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, is adding a popular Midwestern politician whose home state votes reliably for Democrats in presidential elections but is close to Wisconsin and Michigan, two crucial battlegrounds.
Such states are seen as crucial in deciding the November 5 election, and Mr. Walz is widely seen as skilled at connecting with white, rural voters who in recent years have voted broadly for the Republican Donald Trump, Ms. Harris’ rival for the White House.
Ms. Harris chose Mr. Walz over Josh Shapiro, the Governor of Pennsylvania, who had been seen as essential to delivering his crucial battleground state.
Ms. Harris became the Democratic Party’s standard bearer after President Joe Biden ended his re-election campaign last month. Since then, she has raised hundreds of millions of dollars and recast the race against Republican Donald Trump with a boost of energy from her party’s base.
Harris was expected to appear with her running mate at an event in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening.
The Harris campaign hopes Mr. Walz’s extensive National Guard career, coupled with a successful run as a high school football coach, and his Dad joke videos will attract such voters who are not yet dedicated to a second Trump term in the White House.
Ms. Harris, 59, has revived the Democratic Party’s hopes of an election victory since becoming its candidate after President Joe Biden, 81, ended his failing reelection bid under party pressure on July 21.
Mr. Walz was a relative unknown nationally until the Harris “veepstakes” heated up, but his profile has since surged. A popular member of Congress, he reportedly had the backing of powerful former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was instrumental in persuading Mr. Biden to leave the race.
Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz will face Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance, also a military veteran from the Midwest, in the November election.
