Kamala Harris on Tuesday chose Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate to bolster the Democratic ticket in Midwestern states. The decision comes less than a month after Harris was suddenly thrust into the spotlight following President Joe Biden’s exit.
“I’m 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 worked for working families like mine. It’s great to have him on the team,” the VP wrote on X.
The second-term governor of Minnesota has been a supporter of liberal goals and has served 24 years with the US military in domestic and overseas deployments. Walz has represented southern Minnesota in the US House of Representatives for a dozen years and has previously taught high school in both China and the US.
A relative political unknown to Americans until recently, he recently gained attention by criticizing Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance as “weirdos” — an unusual nickname that has struck a chord with Trump.
He presided over the turmoil that followed the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, and also came under scrutiny for his state’s slow rollout of vaccinations amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Walz grew up in a small town in Nebraska and enlisted in the Army National Guard at age 17. He retired in 2005 as the command sergeant major of a field artillery battalion — one of the Army’s highest enlisted ranks. Walz taught in China during the 1989 Tiananmen Square unrest and moved to Minnesota with his wife in the mid-1990s. Walz was also a social studies teacher, football coach and union member at Mankato West High School in Minnesota before entering politics.
Over the past several years, Walz has helped implement an ambitious Democratic agenda for his state — including sweeping protections for abortion rights and generous aid to families.
(with inputs from agencies)
