Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on Tuesday chose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, drawing further attention to Walz’s life and record in public office.
Waltz, 60, a former Army National Guardsman and teacher, has emerged in recent weeks as a vocal defender of Harris. He grew up in small town Nebraska and was a high school football coach and union worker in Minnesota before entering politics. He recently attacked former President Trump and running mate J.D. Vance as “wackos,” a favorite insult of the Harris campaign.
Walz, a former congressman from a Republican-leaning district, has proven popular with rural white voters but as governor he also pushed for progressive policies such as free school lunches and expanded paid leave for workers. Minnesota is overwhelmingly Democratic but is close to key battleground states Wisconsin and Michigan.
Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, criticized for ‘remarkable lack of leadership’ during coronavirus and riots
Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. (Montinique Monroe/Jim Vondruska)
Harris’ campaign hopes that having his name on the shortlist will improve his chances of winning in the upper Midwest, where he also currently serves as chair of the Democratic Governors Association.
Walz’s name has garnered far more attention nationally in recent weeks than it has in years of political activism, and he was one of the first Democrats to blast Republicans as “wackos” in a wave of political insults that are gaining momentum in the 2024 election cycle.
“You’ve got some weird people on the other side. They want to take away books. They want to get in the exam rooms. That’s what it comes down to,” he said on MSNBC last month. “Don’t sugar coat it. This is a weird idea.”
But Gov. Walz has faced criticism over his response to COVID-19 and the riots that rocked Minneapolis in 2020, Fox News Digital previously reported.
“[H]”He’s been a disaster for Minnesota and the most partisan governor I can remember,” Minnesota Republican Party Chairman David Hahn told Fox News Digital last week. “Looking back at 2020, he didn’t try to stop the riots that were happening in Minneapolis. I think he was afraid of alienating his ‘progressive’ base that supported the riots. Kamala Harris is Raising funds for the mob“
Both of Harris’ running mates have flaws that could knock them out of the race.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz spoke to reporters after meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House in Washington, DC, on July 3, 2024. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Some critics point to a memo from Gov. Walz that mandated mask wearing indoors during the coronavirus pandemic and established a hotline to report residents who violate COVID-19 mandates. FOX 9 Minneapolis reported at that time.
He has also come under fire for telling a group of Democrats that socialism is what some call “love your neighbor.”
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“We must never shy away from our progressive values,” he said during a “White Men for Harris” rally on Monday night. “What is socialism to one man is neighborly love to another.”
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Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
