MINNEAPOLIS — Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in her bid for the White House. The 60-year-old Democrat and war veteran rose to prominence with a series of candid television appearances in the days after President Joe Biden decided not to seek a second term. He has turned his state into a bastion of liberal policies and one of the few states this year that protect fans buy tickets online for Taylor Swift concerts and other live events.
Some things you should know about Walz:
It would be hard to find a more vivid representative of the American heartland than Walz. Born in West Point, Nebraska, a community of about 3,500 people northwest of Omaha, Walz joined the Army National Guard and became a teacher in Nebraska.
He and his wife moved to Mankato in southern Minnesota in the 1990s. There he taught social studies and coached football at Mankato West High School, including the 1999 team that won the school’s first of four state championships. He still points to his union membership there.
Walz served in the Army National Guard for 24 years before retiring from a field artillery battalion in 2005 as a command sergeant major, one of the highest ranks for non-commissioned officers in the Army.
In his first race for Congress, Walz surprised a Republican incumbent in 2006, when he won a largely rural, southern Minnesota congressional district over six-term Rep. Gil Gutknecht. Walz was capitalizing on voters’ anger over then-President George W. Bush and the Iraq War.
During six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, Walz advocated for veterans’ rights.
He has also shown a down-to-earth side, partly through video messages on social media with his daughter Hope. One last fall showed them trying out a Minnesota State Fair ride, “The Slingshot,” after joking about fairground food and her being a vegetarian.
Although Walz doesn’t come from one of the crucial “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, where both parties believe they must win, he’s close. He could also help keep Minnesota in Democratic hands.
That’s important because former President Donald Trump portrayed Minnesota as in the game this year, even though the state hasn’t elected a Republican to state office since 2006. No GOP presidential candidate has won the state since President Richard Nixon’s landslide in 1972, but Trump has already campaigned there.
When Democratic Governor Mark Dayton decided not to seek a third term in 2018, Walz campaigned and won office on the theme of “One Minnesota.”
Walz also speaks easily on issues important to Rust Belt voters. He is a champion of Democratic causes including unionization, workers’ rights and a $15-an-hour minimum wage.
In his first term as governor, Walz faced a divided legislature between a Democratic-led House and a Republican-controlled Senate that opposed his proposals to use higher taxes to raise money for schools, health care and roads. But he and lawmakers brokered compromises that eased the state’s divided government still appear to be productive.
In his second year, bipartisan cooperation became more difficult as he used the governor’s emergency powers during the COVID-19 pandemic to shutter businesses and close schools. Republicans have withdrawn and forced out some agency heads. Republicans also remain critical of Walz for what they see as his slow response to the sometimes violent unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.
Things got easier for Walz in his second term, after he defeated Republican Scott Jensena doctor who is nationally known as a vaccine skeptic. Democrats got control of both legislative chambers, paving the way for more liberal policies in state government, aided by a huge budget surplus.
Walz and legislators almost everything eliminated of state restrictions on abortion that Republicans have passed in the past, protected gender affirming care for transgender youth and legalized the recreational use of marijuana.
Democrats rejected Republican requests to use the state budget surplus for tax cuts. funded free school meals for children, free tuition at public universities for students from families earning less than $80,000 a year, a paid family and medical leave program, and health insurance regardless of a person’s immigration status.
Walz called Republican candidate Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance “just weird” in an interview with MSNBC last month, and the Democratic Governors Association — which Walz chairs — reinforced the point after post on XWalz later repeated the characterization on CNN, citing Trump’s repeated mentions of the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter from the film “Silence of the Lambs” in his speeches.
The word quickly changed to a theme for Harris and other Democrats, and has a chance to become a slogan for the undoubtedly strange 2024 election.
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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.