Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate Tuesday, in a move aimed at broadening the Democratic ticket’s appeal in key Midwestern states and among blue-collar voters, according to media reports. CNNs Bloomberg, Associated Press Press Agency and others.
Walz, a former social studies teacher and Army National Guard veteran who won a tough election in a rural U.S. House district before running for governor in 2018 and winning reelection in 2022, balances Harris geographically and demographically, while bringing a history of campaign wins in areas ranging from purple to red and a governing record that ranks among the most progressive of any candidate who has joined the campaign.
Walz was seen as the preferred vice presidential candidate by the progressive wing of the party, especially as an alternative to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. Harris interviewed both governorsand U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, R-Ariz., on Sunday in Washington, where she was narrowing her candidate list.
Walz, who was little known outside his home state beyond the most intimate political observers, has been praised for his easy-going lifestyle and approachable demeanor — as well as his direct attacks on Republican rivals Donald Trump and J.D. Vance — by Democratic officials and strategists struggling to break Trump’s dominance over white voters without college degrees.
Walz, 60, has emerged in recent weeks as one of the party’s top orators, riding on the power of a single adjective to describe Republicans and their policy goals.
“These are some weird people on the other side,” Walz said in a July 23 interview with MSNBC. “They want to take your books, they want to be in your exam room… These are weird ideas.”
Despite best efforts by President Joe Biden, who dropped out of re-election, to portray Republicans under Trump as a threat to American democracy and reproductive rights that cannot be trusted to govern responsibly, the attacks have failed to work, and Trump’s ratings have continued to rise in the polls.
But shortly after Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, Democrats adopted a terse message attributed to the Minnesota governor.
“I love Tim Walz on TV,” Democratic strategist Rebecca Pearcey told States Newsroom in July about Harris’ potential vice presidential running mates.
“I love that it’s so down-to-earth and so pithy and it says, ‘These guys are weird,’” she added. “That’s the thing — we’re overcomplicating what the message is.”
Communicating rural values
Walz, who grew up in a rural Nebraska community, has lambasted Republicans for their relentless focus on cultural issues, most recently criticizing Vance, the U.S. senator from Ohio whose path to the Republican vice presidential nomination hinged on his controversial book that detailed the lives of people in impoverished rural Kentucky.
Vance and Republicans are “obsessed” with taking away rights, Walz said, especially when it comes to reproductive rights and education that includes discussion of gender and sexuality.
“The golden rule that makes small towns work, that we’re not constantly in a position to pick on each other in a small town, is: Mind your own damn business,” Walz told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki on July 25. “I don’t need him (Vance) telling me about my family, I don’t need him telling me about my wife’s health care and reproductive rights, I don’t need him telling my kids what books to read.”
Walz instead presents a pragmatic vision of democratic government.
“They scream socialism, we just build roads, build schools and build prosperity,” Psaki said.
Message to the working class
As governor, Walz has notched a string of policy victories to brag about to the party’s progressive wing, including signing bills to offer free meals to all public school students, expand abortion access and legalize some recreational uses of THC.
But the bespectacled former high school teacher and football coach, who appeared in hunting T-shirts and caps on popular TV shows, also embodies Midwestern pragmatism.
That could support balance voters’ views of a Democratic slate led by Harris, who would be the first female president, the first president of South Asian descent and the second black president. Harris is seen as more liberal than most in the party after rising in California’s Democratic primary.
Christopher Devine, a political scientist at the University of Dayton, said Walz is a nearly identical figure to Harris’ previous vice presidential running mate.
“Walz has a message that reminds me a little bit of Joe Biden, a little bit of a working-class focus,” he said. “He can speak from a rural background, he was a teacher and a coach, and he has a military background. I think he’s someone who could help get the message out to the working class.”
The campaign will build on Walz’s commitment to taking that message to neighboring Wisconsin and other essential Rust Belt states like Michigan and Pennsylvania.
