Niels Lesniewski
CQ-Roll Call
(TNS)
Vice President Kamala Harris picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to join her on the Democratic ticket for 2024 on Tuesday.
The selection was reported by CNN and The Associated Press, citing sources.
Walz, who was first elected governor in 2018 and won reelection in 2022, previously served 12 years in the House, rising to be the top Democrat on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
Shortly after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek reelection, Walz told Minnesota Public Radio that he was prepared to take on the role of running mate if Harris asked, and said that his inclusion on the prospect list was a “testament to Minnesota. We are the land of vice presidents.”
Both Democrats Hubert H. Humphrey and Walter Mondale hailed from Minnesota, winning election as vice president but not faring as well on their own. Humphrey lost the nomination when he ran for president in 1968 after President Lyndon B. Johnson opted against seeking a second full term (the last time that happened before Biden). Mondale won the nomination but was trounced by President Ronald Reagan in 1984.
Walz grew up in Nebraska and joined the National Guard as a teenager to help pay for his college education. He eventually became a teacher in China, and then in Nebraska, before moving in 1996 to Mankato, Minn., where he taught at Mankato West High School. The governor often talks about the challenges of supervising students in a high school cafeteria.
“You do not leave that job with a full head of hair. Trust me,” Walz, 60, posted on X in response to a comment about his age.
Walz was a first-time candidate when he ran for Congress in 2006 as the nominee of the state’s Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, ousting six-term Republican Rep. Gil Gutknecht in a significantly rural congressional district. Mankato and Rochester, home to the Mayo Clinic, were the population centers of the district Walz represented before winning the governor’s race in 2018.
In addition to classroom teaching, he was a football coach and has previously described himself as “a big pheasant hunter.” His ability to engage with more rural voters and Midwestern farmers may be part of why Harris selected Walz over other contenders for the vice presidential nomination. His military experience also provides a counterpoint to that of Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance of Ohio, a Marine Corps veteran.
Walz’s boosters included Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers union, who said that either Walz or Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear would be the union’s top picks. Fain told CBS News over the weekend that Beshear was his favorite of the half-dozen names floated as finalists.
“We really like Tim Walz from Minnesota also, think he’s an awesome guy for labor. One hundred percent, behind labor. And those would be our top two if we had to pick any,” Fain said.
While in Congress, Walz was one of just 31 Democrats to vote in 2014 and one of just 29 to vote in 2015 to support construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, a project backed by unions and opposed by environmental groups that President Joe Biden halted after he took office in 2021.
On votes like those where majorities of the two parties were on opposite sides, Walz voted with fellow Democrats 90.9 percent of the time during his six terms in Congress, according to CQ Vote Studies.
One vote where he bucked the party, however, could have made vetting for the 2024 ticket dicey. In June 2012, Walz was one of just 17 Democrats to vote to hold then-Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena from Congress related to the “Fast and Furious” program targeting gun trafficking. Holder was tapped by Harris to review potential running mates’ backgrounds.
Harris spent the weekend ahead of the announcement interviewing final candidates before selecting Walz. He will make his debut alongside the current vice president on Tuesday evening in Philadelphia before embarking on a cross-country tour with Harris. That includes a stop in Eau Claire, Wis., about an hour-and-a-half drive east of the Twin Cities.
Ryan Kelly and Herb Jackson contributed to this report.
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