The current Vice President Kamala Harris (*1964) has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (*1960) as her running mate in the 2024 presidential election. Walz is a former high school teacher, who served 24 years in the National Guard. Subsequently, he served 6 mandates in the United States Congress, from January 2007 until January 2019, resisting the Trump wave in 2016, winning in a rural, southern and conservative district in Minnesota. In 2018, he was elected governor of Minnesota with 53.8% of the vote and, in 2022, he was reelected with 52.3% of the vote.
Minnesota is a dark-blue state, last carried by a Republican presidential candidate in 1972 (Richard Nixon). However, Tim Walz was born in West Point, a small village in Nebraska. He is the son of a public school administrator and a stay-at-home mother. Later, his family moved to the another village, Butte (Nebraska), where he graduated from high school in 1982. The following year, his father died from lung cancer.
During the Korean War, the father of Tim Walz had served in the army, which paid for his education through the G.I. Bill. The father wanted the same opportunity for his son. Therefore, in 1981, at the tender age of 17, Tim Walz enlisted in the Army National Guard. He served until 2005 (at the end as Command Sergeant Major).
In 1989, Tim Walz earned a teaching degree, a Bachelor of Science in social science from Chadron State College in Nebraska. 1989-90 he served one year as teacher in China for the NGO Harvard World Teach; he has basic knowledge of Mandarin.
From 1991 until 1996, he worked as a teacher for Alliance Public Schools. Alliance is a city in Nebraska, where he met his wife, a fellow teacher; they have two children (born in 2001 and 2006). From 1996 until 2006, Tim Walz worked as a teacher for Mankato West High School, where he helped gay and lesbian students dealing with bullying, as the NYT put it. Tim Walz coached the Mankato West Scarlets to a Minnesota high school football championship.
In 1995, Tim Walz was arrested drinking and driving. According to The Daily Beast, he has been a teetotaler ever since.
In 2001, Tim Walz earned a Master of Science from Minnesota State University in Mankato. He also worked as Fellow in International Relations for the Macau Polytechnic University and founded the Educational Travel Adventures, Incorporated.
Why did Kamala Harris prefer Tim Walz over Josh Shapiro, the popular governor of Pennsylvania, a must-win state for Democrats? Was she afraid of taking risks chosing a Jewish governor while being married to a Jewish man during the Gaza War, which is very unpopular with many Democrats, notably among Muslims in swing states such as Michigan.
Minnesota is a deep-blue state. Kamala Harris would win that state anyway. If it is better known that Tim Walz is originally from Nebraska, this may help the Democrats in “flyover”, “rust belt” states. At least, Tim Walz is a governor, someone with executive experience and a record.
As a Congressman, Tim Walz had a moderate, bipartisan record. He could work across the aisle. This is essential since, as vice president, he would preside over the United States Senate.
As Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz has secured abortion rights in his state by signing into la a bill in 2023 guaranteeing the “fundamental right to make autonomous decisions” regarding abortion, contraception and fertility treatments. Since Donald Trump elected Supreme Court Justices who overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022 for women across the United States, so-called reproductive rights will be a key issue in the 2024 presidential election.
In addition, Governor Walz introduced a “liberal” (center-left), middle-class agenda, including free meals for schoolchildren and free college tutition for low-income students, protections for transgender people. He allowed the use of recreational marijuana and set a goal for Minnesota to rely 100% on renewable electricity by 2040 and, by 2030, 20% of all cars in Minnesota should be electric vehicles.
Tim Walz is a hunter, who used to have the support of the infamous National Riffle Association (NRA). But, after the 2018 Parkland high school mass shooting in Florida, in which 17 people where killed by a 19-year-old former pupil, Tim Walz denounced the NRA and spoke out in favor of gun control. In 2023, he introduced universal background checks to curb gun violence in Minnesota.
Tim Walz coined the unofficial 2024 Democratic presidential campaign slogan: “These guys [Trump and Vance] are just weired”,
Despite many downsides, the relatively weak candidate Kamala Harris, with no substantial record as vice president, has now Tim Walz on her ticket. They are the better option than Donald J. Trump and J.D. Vance, a MAGA duo that should scare off moderate Republican and independent voters in swing states.
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Photograph of Governor Tim Walz by the Office of Governor Tim Walz & Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan. Public domain.
Article added on August 6, 2024 at 21:51 German time. Football coach detail added on August 7, 2024 at 00:58 German time.
