The Making of the President 2024: The Selection of Tim Walz on the Democratic Ticket
On August 6, 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that Minnesota Governor Timothy James Walz would be her running mate in the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Walz, who was born on April 6, 1964, is a former school teacher, former football coach, and retired U.S. Army non-commissioned officer. Since 2019 he has served as the 41st Governor of Minnesota and before that he served as a member of the US House of Representatives from 2007 to 2019, where he was the ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs committee from 2017 to 2019.
Walz was born in West Point, Nebraska. He joined the Army National Guard after completing high school and later graduated from Chardon State College. He moved to Minnesota in 1996 where he taught high school social studies and coached the school football team. He spent a year teaching in Guangdong, China, with an organization called World Teach. Walz was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Minnesota's 1st Congressional District in 2006m defeating a six-term Republican incumbent. He was reelected to the House five times before being elected as Governor of Minnesota in 2018 and winning re-election in 2022
While working as a teacher, Walz met his wife, fellow teacher Gwen Whipple and the two were married in 1994. Two years later, they moved to Mankato, Minnesota, in Gwen's home state, where Walz worked as a geography teacher and football coach at Mankato West High School. The football team had lost 27 straight games when he joined the coaching staff as a defensive coordinator. Three years later, in 1999, the team won its first state championship. In 1999, Walz agreed to be the faculty advisor of Mankato West High School's first gay-straight alliance. For nine years Walz and his wife also ran Educational Travel Adventures, which organized summer educational trips to China for high-school students. In 2002 Walz received his Masters degree in education from Minnesota State University.
Walz served in the National Guard for 24 years after enlisting in 1981 He trained in heavy artillery. After Walz completed the 20 years of service needed for retirement from the Guard, he reenlisted and in 2003 Walz deployed with the Minnesota National Guard to Vicenza, Italy, for nine months, to serve with the European Security Force as part of Operation Enduing Freedom. He attained the rank of command sergeant major. He retired from the guard in 2005 to run for Congress, The Minnesota National Guard confirmed that Walz retired two months before his former unit was notified on July 14 of its potential deployment to Iraq. Republican candidates Donald Trump and J. D. Vance have used the timing of Walz's military retirement against him.
Walz became first active in politics in August 2004, when he volunteered for John Kerry's campaign for President. On February 10, 2005, Walz filed to run for the U.S. House of Representatives in Minnesota's 1st Congressional District. In the election he ran against Gil Gutknecht, a six-term incumbent. A centerpiece of Walz's campaign was opposition to the Iraq War. Walz won the election with 53% of the vote. Walz was reelected in 2008 with 62% of the vote, becoming only the second non-Republican to win a second full term in the district. He won a third term in 2010 with 49% of the vote in a three-way race, but was reelected by comfortable margins in2012 and 2014. In 2016, Walz was narrowly reelected to a sixth term, winning by less than 1% of the vote (2,548 votes), even as his district overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump in the presidential election.
During the 2008 economic crisis, Walz was opposed to using taxpayer money to bail out financial institutions. In late September, he voted against the $700 billion TARP bill, which purchased troubled assets from these institutions. In December 2008, Walz voted against the bill that offered $14 billion in government loans to bail out the country's large automobile manufacturers. He voted for the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.In February 2008, Walz endorsed Barack Obama as a candidate for President. During the 2013 federal government shutdown Walz chose not to accept his congressional pay, instead donating it to hunger-relief organizations.
Walz was ranked the 7th-most bipartisan House member during the 114th Congress in the Bipartisan Index. In early 2015, he endorsed Hillary Clinton's candidacy for President.
In March 2017, Walz announced he would run for governor of Minnesota. On November 6, 2018, he was elected as Governor defeating his Republican opponent by a margin of 53.84% to 42.43%. He won re-election in 2022 by a margin of 52.3% to 44.6%. In 2021 President Joe Biden appointed Walz as a co-chairman of the Council of Governors. and in 2023, Walz was named chair of the Democratic Governors Association.
On May 26, 2020, the day after the death of George Floyd, Walz said, "The lack of humanity in this disturbing video is sickening. We will get answers and seek justice". In response to riots in Minnesota, Walz partially activated the Minnesota National Guard on May 28, and fully activated it on May 30. President Trump reacted to Walz's actions by saying that he "fully agree[d] with the way [Walz] handled it" and that "what [the Minnesota National Guard] did in Minneapolis was incredible". Trump called Walz an "excellent guy".
In January 2023, Walz signed the Protect Reproductive Options Act, which protects access to reproductive health care including abortion, contraception, and fertility treatments in Minnesota. Abortion is legal at all stages of pregnancy in Minnesota. In April 2023, he signed the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act, which banned state agencies from "enforcing out-of-state subpoenas, arrest warrants, and extradition requests" for people who travel to Minnesota for legal abortion, and limited the release of related health records. He also cut funding for organizations established by anti-abortion groups.
When schools were closed in 2020 due to COVID-19, Walz adopted a cautious stance on reopening them, which aligned closely with the concerns of teachers who were hesitant to return to in-person learning due to fear of contracting COVID-19. Minnesota schools remained remote longer than the national average during the 2020-21 school year.
On May 30, 2023, Walz signed into law House File 100 to legalize recreational cannabis in his state, which went into effect on August 1, 2023. In June 2024, Walz signed the Minnesota Debt Fairness Act. The act prevents health care providers from denying medically necessary treatment because of outstanding medical debt and prevents medical debt from affecting credit scores.
On July 22, 2024, Walz endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, following the withdrawal of incumbent President Joe Biden from 2024 Presidential race. The Harris campaign vetted Walz, along with Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker, and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. Shapiro, Kelly and Walz were the only three to be interviewed by Harris in person. On August 6, Harris announced that she had chosen Walz as her running mate. The Democratic National Committee certified Walz's candidacy the same day it was announced. His selection was met with approval from an ideologically diverse group of politicians, including progressive Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, centrist independent senator Joe Manchin, and moderate Republican Larry Hogan, the former governor of Maryland.
Walz is credited with first publicly describing Donald Trump and his running mate J. D. Vance as "weird," spawning a number of internet memes. On August 21, 2024, the third day of the Democratic National Convention, Walz officially accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president.
On September 23, 1995, Walz was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence (DUI) in Dawes County, Nebraska. He pled guilty to a lesser charge of reckless driving and his driving license was suspected for 90 days. He stopped drinking alcohol following the incident
Walz is estranged from his older brother, a former assistant principal at a middle school in Florida, who has announced his support for Donald Trump. He also has an older sister, a former teacher from Alliance, Nebraska, who supports his campaign.
Walz is a man of modest means. He owns no businesses and lists no income besides his salary as governor and his wife's teaching salary. The Walzes reported income of $166,000 on their 2022 tax returns. This places Walz among the least wealthy candidates ever to run for vice president.