August 6, 2024
Who is Tim Walz?
You probably know by now that Vice President Kamala Harris selected him as her vice presidential running mate. But unless you live in Minnesota you probably don’t know much about him. Don’t feel bad. Most people are in that boat.
Well – here’s what you need to know.
Tim Walz is the 60-year-old governor of Minnesota. He was first elected to that office in 2018 and then was re-elected in 2022. But that wasn’t the beginning of his political career. He was also elected to serve as the representative from Minnesota’s 1st district in the United States Congress. That’s a district that is usually red, but Walz kept winning re-election and held that seat for 12 years.
Most political watchers say that’s because of Walz appeal to independents and even in some cases…republicans. Lots of political analysts use the terms “folksy” or “just a regular guy” when describing him. And that comes from his background. He came from humble beginnings in rural Nebraska where he hunted and fished. After high school he enlisted in the army national guard and served in the military for 24 years. While serving full time in the guard he also became a high school social studies teacher and a coach. Fun fact – in the late 1980s he taught English in China and still can speak mandarin.
But I’m sure you want to know — what are his positions on the issues. Well this is not a comprehensive list – but here are some of them. He’s a big supporter of labor and unions, he’s big on agriculture and obviously big on veterans’ issues. During the 2008 economic crisis when he was in congress –he was very vocal in opposing the taxpayer bailout of financial institutions. And back then — he was a strong supporter of gun rights and was even endorsed by the NRA political victory fund several times – even receiving an “A” from the organization at one point. But that changed in 2018 after the Parkland shooting. He denounced the NRA and as governor he signed into law a public safety bill that establishes universal background checks and red flag laws in Minnesota. As governor he also advocated for and passed a law to legalize recreational cannabis and a signed a law creating a state-run program to provide paid family and medical leave for Minnesota workers. He has a long history of supporting LBGTQ+ rights and as for abortion –just a few months ago in march – Vice President Harris became the first sitting Vice President ever to visit a Planned Parenthood to advocate for reproductive freedom. Tim Walz was there. In fact — he signed a law making Minnesota the first state to codify abortion rights into state law after Roe vs Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court.
It’s also worth noting – that within the last few weeks it was Tim Walz who started that whole Donald Trump and JD Vance are “weird” viral talking point. Walz coined that term when referring to the former president talking about Hannibal Lecter and sharks on the campaign trail and Vance talking about “cat ladies”. But don’t get it twisted — Republicans are planning to fire back at Walz hard. They are already painting him as a radical liberal and attacking him for many things including that he was the governor of Minnesota when George Floyd was murdered. Conservatives say he delayed in deploying the national guard to restore order during the unrest.
