9 Things to Know About Kamala Harris’s Reported Running Mate, Governor Tim Walz
Ever since Joe Biden announced that he was ending his 2024 reelection campaign, the Democratic base has been newly energized, with perhaps no question looming larger than who would fill out the ticket alongside Vice President Harris.
The short list (at least measured by media buzz) has been dynamic. Possibilities included United States Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, Arizona senator Mark Kelly, Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, Michigan senator Gary Peters, and Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro. (Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer and North Carolina’s Roy Cooper seemed likely candidates, too, before both of them stated that they were removing themselves from the running.)
The one thing that the Harris campaign has been clear about from the get go: They are looking for someone ready to govern. (Trump, by contrast, in defending the choice of J.D. Vance, appeared to dismiss the importance of the VP pick last week, saying “historically, the vice president in terms of the election does not have any impact.”)
Now, according to reports, Harris has decided that she will be running with Minnesota governor Tim Walz. Below, everything you need to know about Harris’s running mate.
Governor Walz and Vice President Kamala Harris in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in March.
Photo: Getty Images
1. The 60-year-old Walz is currently chair of the Democratic Governors Association, but before being elected governor of Minnesota in 2018, he represented the state’s 1st Congressional District and—before that—served in the Army National Guard for 24 years.
2. He is also a former educator who taught social studies for 20 years before becoming a politician in Mankato, Minn., a small city south of Minneapolis.
3. As governor, Walz has a strikingly progressive record, having overseen, among other things, the legalization of recreational marijuana in Minnesota, the implementation of universal background checks, the protection of gender-affirming services, legislation that enshrined abortion rights, and a plan for transitioning to clean energy.
4. A year ago, surrounded by Minnesota students, he signed a free lunch bill into effect, and was promptly hugged by the crowd, which seemed to delight and surprise him at the same time.
Walz, embraced by children at a Minneapolis elementary school after signing a free breakfast and lunch bill into law.
Photo: Michelle Griffith/Minnesota Reformer
5. Walz is also responsible for one of the most memorable attacks on the Republican Party this election cycle to date, calling them, simply, “weird,” and birthing a million memes in the process.
6. Though Minnesota is not a battleground state (Richard Nixon was the last Republican presidential candidate that the state voted for), Walz is seen as someone who might help Harris with rural, working-class voters in Midwest in particular.
7. The aftermath of the George Floyd protests expected to be a point of that the GOP will raise in their attacks on Walz.
8. The governor is married to Gwen Walz, a longtime teacher who has held positions in public, alternative, and migrant schools, and has also worked to bring educational opportunities to incarcerated people. They have two children, Hope and Gus.
Walz with his wife, Gwen, and their children, Gus and Hope, in 2018.
Photo: Getty Images
9. Reproductive rights are personal for him. The governor and his wife have recently been open about using fertility treatments after Alabama legislation shut down several IVF clinics in that state.
