After two weeks of vetting and speculation, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) as her running mate for the presidential election this November.
CNN broke the news on Tuesday morning, hours before Walz and Harris are set to launch a campaign blitz across several swing states. Harris made the news official in a social media post on X on Tuesday.
I am proud to announce that I’ve asked @Tim_Walz to be my running mate.
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.
Now let’s get to work. Join us:https://t.co/W4AE2WlMTj
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 6, 2024
Walz was able to beat out an impressive list of rising stars in the Democratic party for the nomination. A list that included fellow Midwest Govs. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), Andy Beshear (D-KY) and J.B. Pritzker (D-IL), as well as U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Although the list was quite long, reports seemed to indicate Walz and Shapiro were the final candidates in consideration.
After President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential election on July 21, Walz joined other prominent Democrats across the country by immediately endorsing Harris. Walz and the other vice-president contenders then proceeded to make slew of media appearances to rally support for Harris and her campaign. During this time, Walz was propelled to the forefront of the VP search for his on-camera skills and ability to appeal to a broad audience. This culminated in Walz coining the MAGA is “weird” message, which has been hard for Trump and other Republicans to shake.
Potential VP candidate and MN Gov. Tim Walz (D) slams JD Vance:
“People like JD Vance know nothing about small town America … It’s not about hate … The Golden Rule there is mind your own damn business. Their policies are what destroyed rural America.” pic.twitter.com/4fngu1U4Ea
— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) July 23, 2024
Part of Walz’s appeal comes from his roots in small-town America and background of service, which includes 24 years in the Army National Guard and work as a high school geography teacher and football coach. Walz pivoted to politics in 2004 when he volunteered in John Kerry’s 2004 presidential bid before winning a seat in Congress in 2006. Walz represented Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District from 2007-2019 before being elected governor in 2018.
During his time as governor, the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) was on the precipice of a massive grassroots organizing campaign. As Walz won his second term in 2022, the DFL’s efforts paid off in the form of a trifecta at the state legislative level, the first for the DFL in over a decade. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Walz and his colleagues worked to pass several formative pieces of legislation, including abortion rights, paid family and medical leave, a clean energy bill, gun reform, voting rights expansion and recreational marijuana, among others.
Walz and Harris will immediately hit the campaign trail for events in swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona — all states that Biden and Harris were able to win in the 2020 election.