Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz has been selected by Vice President Kamala Harris to be her vice presidential running mate in the 2024 presidential election in November.
Harris confirmed her choice early Tuesday morning on her campaign’s social media accounts.
“I am proud to announce that I’ve asked Tim Walz to be my running mate,” Harris said in a post on X, the site formerly known as Twitter. “As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he’s delivered for working families like his. It’s great to have him on the team.”
Walz was selected above two other potential nominees, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. Walz is somewhat of an unexpected candidate choice for Harris, given that Kelly and Shapiro were deemed the most likely as of late last week.
Walz has been governor of the Gopher State since 2019. Aside from enacting several progressive policies since taking office, as a running mate for Harris he provides a Midwestern voice and assuages concerns that the so-called “flyover country” in the U.S. would be ignored if a candidate from a coastal state had been chosen for the Democratic ticket.
Democrats have traditionally relied on a “blue wall” of states to help them win presidential elections, including Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan among others. That changed in 2016, when former President Donald Trump narrowly won Wisconsin and Michigan, which, alongside his winning Pennsylvania, helped him cruise to victory in that year’s election. President Joe Biden, in turn, won those states in 2020, again by narrow margins, signaling they’d be up for grabs once again in the 2024 race.
Walz has successfully put a Midwestern spin on Trump and his running mate, GOP Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, that has caught on in social media, describing them and the Republican Party’s ideals as “weird.” Observers have also taken note of his approachable “dad” vibes, which could help Democrats to recapture parts of a voting bloc they have struggled with in recent years — white working-class men.
Walz has been criticized by progressives, however, for his deployment of the National Guard following the police-perpetrated killing of George Floyd in 2020. Using troops in response to the uprisings that followed, Walz claimed that participants in the uprisings were putting the Twin Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis “under assault,” and errantly stated that they were “no longer in any way” protesting Floyd’s murder by police officers.
In so doing, Walz perpetuated the state-based violence that had triggered the demonstrations in the first place, according to sources living near the uprisings in Minneapolis at the time and who spoke to Truthout recently.
Walz also took actions that led to more convictions of people who participated in the uprisings, by transferring charges from local district attorneys’ offices to the state attorney general.
Walz is a relatively unknown name in American politics. According to a recently published NPR/PBS News/Marist poll, more than 7 in 10 Americans (71 percent) do not know enough about him. Of those who do have an opinion about Walz, 17 percent have a favorable view of him, while just 12 percent have an unfavorable view.
Despite these issues, Walz is praised by progressives on a number of other matters.
He has, for example, implemented some small changes to policing standards in the state, including issuing an executive order to utilize $15 million in state funds for violence prevention programs and changes to state policies regarding the viewing of body camera footage. He has also signed legislation to decriminalize cannabis, creating a system to expunge the records of people convicted of low-level marijuana crimes and making recreational pot legal in the state starting next year.
Alongside the Democratic-run state legislature, Walz has also enacted what The Guardian has described as “one of the most pro-worker packages of legislation that any U.S. state has passed in decades.” Those newly passed laws include paid family and medical leave, prohibitions against noncompete clauses for workers, bans on employers keeping workers “captive” at anti-union meetings, and added protections for warehouse employees.
The governor also enacted policies to help feed children in schools, including ensuring that all students in the state of Minnesota, regardless of income level, are provided free meals.
Walz signed into law a bill that made Minnesota the first state to pass a pro-abortion statute following the dismantling of Roe v. Wade by the federal Supreme Court. The law guarantees the right to abortion for residents of the state, codifying a state Supreme Court ruling from 1995 that places no gestational limits on when a person can obtain the procedure. Walz also signed an executive order making the state a refuge for transgender people, barring state agencies and workers from complying with other states’ demands for information that would lead to prosecutorial action against trans people or those helping them to obtain gender-affirming care.
Walz has the support of progressive lawmakers, too.
“I am very impressed by him,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) in a recent interview with Minnesota Public Radio, adding that it was important for Harris to select someone who “understands the needs of working families.”
“I hope very much that [Harris] selects a running mate who will speak up and take on powerful corporate interests, and I think Tim Walz is somebody who could do that,” Sanders added.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) was quick to praise the selection on Tuesday morning.
“Vice President Harris made an excellent decision in Gov. Walz as her running mate. Together, they will govern effectively, inclusively, and boldly for the American people,” Ocasio-Cortez posted online.
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