Former teacher & a veteran: What we know about Kamala Harris’ running mate

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was officially announced as Harris’ VP pick on Tuesday

Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris has announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate in her bid for the White House later this year.

Walz, a former teacher and an army veteran, emerged as a vice-presidential frontrunner in recent days, despite not being a household name for most Americans. Following the announcement, the Minnesota governor said it was the “honor of a lifetime” to be chosen by Harris.

Here’s a closer look at the Democrats’ choice for vice president.

Who is Tim Walz?

The 60-year-old Nebraska-born governor graduated from Chadron State College in 1989. 

He served in Congress between 2007 and 2019, was elected as Minnesota governor in 2019 and re-elected in 2022, giving him both legislative and executive experience. He currently chairs the Democratic Governors Association. 

While in Congress, Walz represented a conservative-leaning rural district that has typically been dominated by Republicans.

Walz joined the Army National Guard at the age of 17 and served for 24 years.

Before running for Congress, he worked as a school teacher on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where he met his wife Gwen, with whom he has two children. He then taught for a short time in China and later as a high-school teacher in Minnesota. 

Walz has said he entered politics by joining Massachusetts Senator John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign as a volunteer. According to himself, he joined after initially going to a campaign rally for then-president George W Bush, where one of his friends was turned away for wearing a Kerry sitcker.

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Walz’s political record 

The Minnesota governor has been praised by some progressives for being able to push for some left-wing priorities in a swing state.

He has long been a supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, according to the Human Rights Campaign. As early as the 1990s, he was a faculty adviser to his school’s Gay-Straight Alliance. He supported same-sex marriage during his campaign for congress in 2006 in a conservative district. He has also signed an executive order banning gay “conversion therapy” for minors and signed laws providing protections for gender-affirming healthcare.

In recent years, Walz has supported programs to cover college tuition for low-income students, as well as free breakfast and lunch programs at public schools. He legalized recreational marijuana for adults in Minnesota and expanded worker protections. He is also seen as a strong defender of abortion rights. 

On foreign policy, he supported funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and has advocated for funding Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.

Once an avid hunter and backed by the powerful National Rifle Association, Walz over the years has changed his stance on gun safety, enacting stricter gun violence prevention laws. 

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Why Harris picked Walz

Presidential candidates often opt for a running mate from a swing state in the hopes of pulling in as many voters as possible. Walz is an appealing choice for Harris in that regard, with his history of serving a conservative-leaning district and experience working across the aisle with both Democrats and Republicans. A source close to the selection process told USA Today that Harris was drawn to Walz’s executive experience and progressive record. 

While he is not from one of the crucial swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan or Pennsylvania, he is still from neighboring Minnesota, which Democrats will need to keep blue in November.

The Harris campaign also reportedly sees Walz as an effective communicator, with the ability to take on the Trump campaign, particularly after he coined the Democrats’ now-viral attack line that Republicans are “weird.”

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