MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate for the White House. The 60-year-old Democrat and military veteran made his name in a series of 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 politics and is one of the few states this year to protect fans who buy tickets online for Taylor Swift concerts and other live events.
Some things you should know about Walz:
Walz comes from rural America
It would be difficult to find a more vibrant representative of the American heartland than Walz. He was born in West Point, Nebraska, a community of about 3,500 residents northwest of Omaha. Walz joined the Army National Guard and became a teacher in Nebraska.
In the 1990s, he and his wife moved to Mankato in southern Minnesota. There he taught social studies and coached football at Mankato West High School, including the team that won the school’s first of four state championships in 1999. He still points to his union membership there.
Walz served in the Army National Guard for 24 years, rising to the rank of command sergeant major, one of the highest ranks in the military. However, he did not complete his training before retiring, so his rank was changed to master sergeant for pay purposes.
He has a proven ability to connect with conservative voters
Walz defeated a Republican incumbent in his first race for Congress. That was in 2006, when he defeated six-term Rep. Gil Gutknecht in a largely rural congressional district in southern Minnesota. Walz capitalized on voter 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’ interests.
He has also shown a down-to-earth side, including through social media video posts with his daughter Hope. last autumn shows them trying out the Minnesota State Fair ride “The Slingshot” after making fun of fairground food and their vegetarianism.
He could help the elections in the most important Midwestern states
Although Walz is not from one of the crucial “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, where both sides believe they must win, he is right next door. He could also keep Minnesota in Democratic hands.
That’s important because former President Donald Trump has portrayed Minnesota as a major candidate this year, even though the state hasn’t elected a Republican to statewide office since 2006. No Republican presidential candidate has won the state since President Richard Nixon’s landslide victory in 1972, but Trump has campaigned there before.
When Democratic Governor Mark Dayton decided not to run for a third term in 2018, Walz campaigned under the slogan “One Minnesota” and won the office.
Walz also speaks out loud about issues important to Rust Belt voters. He is an advocate for Democratic causes, including unionization, workers’ rights and a $15-an-hour minimum wage.
He has experience with divided government
In his first term as governor, Walz faced a split in the legislature between the Democratic-dominated House and the Republican-dominated Senate, which opposed his proposals to raise taxes to raise more money for schools, health care and roads. But he and lawmakers brokered compromises that still made the state’s divided government seem productive.
Bipartisan cooperation became more difficult in his second year in office as he used the governor’s emergency powers to shut down businesses and close schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, a move Republicans pushed back on and forced some agency heads to resign. Republicans also remain critical of Walz for what they say was his slow response to the sometimes violent unrest that followed the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.
Things got easier for Walz in his second term after he defeated Republican Scott Jensen, a doctor known nationally as a vaccine skeptic. Democrats won control of both houses of the legislature, paving the way for a more liberal course in state government, helped by a huge budget surplus.
Walz and the other lawmakers repealed nearly all state abortion restrictions enacted by Republicans in the past, protected gender-affirming care for transgender youth, and legalized recreational marijuana use.
Democrats rejected Republican demands to use the surplus in the federal budget to cut taxes and instead funded free school meals for children, free tuition at public universities for students from families with annual incomes under $80,000, a paid family and medical leave program, and health insurance regardless of the person’s immigration status.
He has an ear for political headlines
In an MSNBC interview last month, Walz called Republican nominee Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance “just weird.” The Democratic Governors Association — of which Walz is chairman — underscored this point in a post on X. Walz later reiterated this characterization on CNN, pointing to Trump’s repeated references to the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter from the film “Silence of the Lambs” in campaign speeches.
The word quickly became a leitmotif for Harris and other Democrats and has the chance to become the buzzword of what will undoubtedly be a strange election in 2024.
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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.
Steve Karnowski and John Hanna, The Associated Press
