He wasn’t necessarily the expected choice. But Kamala Harris confirmed on Tuesday that Tim Walz would indeed be her running mate for the November 5 presidential election. The 60-year-old governor of the state of Minnesota is particularly known for having taken measures considered progressive since his accession in 2019 to the head of this “Midwest” state, a key region for November.
The Democratic candidate immediately said she was “proud” to announce this choice. “As a governor, coach, teacher and veteran, he has defended the interests of working families like his,” the Democratic candidate wrote. on X. Tim Walz, for his part, said it was “the honor of a lifetime” to join Kamala Harris’ campaign. “The vice president is showing us what is possible in politics. So come on, guys, join us!”
The man who would become Kamala Harris’ vice president, if she were elected on November 5 against Donald Trump, will be present with her for a first tandem meeting this Tuesday evening in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They will then continue with several other pivotal states between now and Saturday for a tour that should set the tone for their understanding and complementarity.
On the Trumpist side, the opportunity to already lambast the governor of Minnesota was not missed. “Just like Kamala Harris, Tim Walz is a dangerous extremist leftist, and Harris and Walz’s dream” of transforming the United States in the image of California, represents “every American’s nightmare”, declared in a press release Karoline Leavitt, spokesperson for the former Republican president’s campaign team. Anticipating these attacks, the influential Democratic elected representative Nancy Pelosi had declared this Tuesday morning on MSNBC that defining Tim Walz “as being on the left” was “surreal”. He is “completely in the center”, she maintained.
Teacher in China and canteen supervisor
For Tim Walz, this choice is the culmination of an atypical career path for this former professor turned governor. Not exactly known outside the borders of his home state of Minnesota, the sixty-year-old has distinguished himself in recent weeks by his repeated little digs at Donald Trump and his entourage, whom he has constantly described as “weird guys.”
“We’re not afraid of weird guys,” the affable, fast-talking lawmaker said at a campaign rally. “Trust me as a teacher, bullies have no power.” The Nebraska native has spent many years in education, including as a geography teacher and football coach. Interestingly, the man with the small rectangular glasses taught in China for a few months, just after the Tiananmen Square events of spring 1989.
“Being able to be in a Chinese high school at this crucial moment felt really essential to me,” he would confide years later before a committee of the American Congress, where he would serve for 12 years. When the first rumors of his nomination as Kamala Harris’ running mate circulated, some Internet users wondered if the pair were really the same age, accompanying their messages with a photo of Tim Walz, his head receding. “I was a cafeteria supervisor for 20 years. You don’t do that job without tearing your hair out,” the 60-year-old elected official replied humorously on X.
Major crises
In January 2019, Tim Walz became governor of Minnesota, a state in the Great Lakes region bordering Canada. Barely a year later, he was forced to juggle two major crises: the Covid-19 pandemic and the death of African-American George Floyd, under the knee of a white police officer.
Minneapolis, the state’s largest city, is ablaze, the starting point for a huge movement of anti-racist protests that will shake America for many months. Republicans accuse the governor of being too lax in his management of crime, while Democrats, on the contrary, praise his record on protecting the right to abortion.
A former National Guard soldier, Walz has the advantage of coming from a rural background, unlike Harris, which could help her appeal to a broader electorate among undecided voters. Seen as a moderate, he has also taken steps labeled progressive, such as legalizing recreational marijuana use and strengthening controls on gun purchases, while also claiming to be a hunter.
After the Supreme Court’s June 2022 ruling that struck down constitutional protections for abortion, Walz also pledged to make his state a sanctuary for women seeking abortions. A clinic in the much more repressive neighboring state of North Dakota moved to his side of the border. In March 2024, he participated in the first trip by a vice president to an abortion clinic, Kamala Harris, with whom he now hopes to reach the White House.