Vice President Kamala Harris picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate on Tuesday, and a whirlwind process that began barely two weeks ago ended with the Minnesota Democrat on the ticket to claim the White House.
Harris’ campaign made a formal announcement on Tuesday before the pair heads to an evening rally in Philadelphia. Meanwhile, a crowd of supporters gathered outside of Walz's temporary Eastcliff residence in St. Paul where he got the call to be her vice presidential running mate.
The reaction came swiftly Tuesday morning after one of the more high-profile vice presidential picks in recent memory finally came to a close.
"Minnesota is known as the land of Vice Presidents, and we've got another great one on the way," declared Minnesota U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (DFL) who spoke to the WCCO Morning News. "As a veteran, a high school teacher and football coach, and our Minnesota Governor, Tim Walz has been an incredible leader (and on top of that, a good friend). Let's go win this!"
Former presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sander (I-Vt.) said Walz is a “great asset” to Harris’s “winning campaign.”
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic challenger to former President Donald Trump in 2016, said Walz will be an incredible partner to "our first woman president."
"I'm thrilled to see Tim Walz join the Democratic ticket," Clinton said in a social media post. "From providing free meals for schoolkids to implementing paid family leave in Minnesota, he's about doing good in all the ways you can. "
On the other side, Republicans were quick to point out issues Walz has faced as governor.
"It’s not surprising Kamala Harris picked Tim Walz to be her running mate — he embodies the same disastrous economic, open-borders, and soft-on-crime policies Harris has inflicted on our country the last four years," explained Minnesota Congressman and House Whip Tom Emmer (R). "Walz is an empty suit who has worked to turn Minnesota into Harris’ home state of California, and solidifies this ticket's full embrace of a radical, America-last agenda."
Former Minnesota Governor and a former candidate for vice president on the Republican ticket, Tim Pawlenty," told WCCO's Adam and Jordana Walz has some clear missteps the Trump-Vance campaign can exploit.
"I think record government spending and fraud in state government could have some traction," Pawlenty said. "But I think the handling, the timely favor to call out the National Guard when the (George Floyd) riots were unfolding, and sort of pointing fingers at a young mayor who was in over his head because he didn't fill out the right forms or send in the right information. Plus just Trump just loves to talk about that so I think that's going to be featured."
Pawlenty is referring to a record amount of spending during the last legislative session where Minnesota increased the budget to $72 billion, plus issues with fraud after the Feeding Our Future scandal. Minnesota also overpaid to the tune of $430 Million in Pandemic Unemployment Benefits adding to the lack of oversight. These are sure things the Republicans will exploit in the next three months says Pawlenty.
Former Minnesota State Representative Kurt Daudt (R) worked closely with Walz as the former Minority Leader of the Minnesota House. Daudt says now that he is officially on the ticket, Walz will have to face greater scrutiny from the media.
"Governor Walz's record on, you know, COVID, on the fraud stuff that's gone on during his tenure, certainly on the George Floyd stuff and his handling of that, which I think was grossly mishandled," Daudt said. "And I think those things bring liability once the press starts digging into that stuff."
Walz has defended his actions in the wake of the George Floyd Minneapolis riot saying he had followed protocol by waiting for city leaders to request assistance before sending in the National Guard.
Current Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, Melissa Hortman (DFL), is celebrating the selection. Hortman says it will put Minnesota's recent record on the national stage. Hortman says having Democrats in charge of both the House and Senate along with Walz gave them a chance to work on important issues for the left.
"It was a really great run these last two years with the trifecta, doing things that help Minnesotans in their every day lives, helps them afford their life," she told Vineeta Sawkar on the WCCO Morning News.
CAMPAIGN HITS THE GROUND RUNNING
In choosing the 60-year-old Walz, she is turning to a Midwestern governor, military veteran and union supporter who helped enact an ambitious Democratic agenda for his state, including sweeping protections for abortion rights and generous aid to families.
He is joining Harris during one of the most turbulent periods in modern American politics, promising an unpredictable campaign ahead. Republicans have rallied around former President Donald Trump after his attempted assassination in July. Just weeks later, President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign, forcing Harris to unify Democrats and consider potential running mates during an exceedingly compressed time frame.
Harris hopes to shore up her campaign’s standing across the upper Midwest, a critical region in presidential politics that often serves as a buffer for Democrats seeking the White House. The party remains haunted by Trump’s wins in Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016. Trump lost those states in 2020 but has zeroed in on them as he aims to return to the presidency this year and is expanding his focus to Minnesota.
Harris, second gentleman Doug Emhoff and Walz are set to appear together for an evening rally in Philadelphia, recalling a joint 2020 appearance by Biden and Harris in Wilmington, Delaware.
After Tuesday’s trip to Pennsylvania, they will spend the next five days flying thousands of miles around the country touring critical battleground states. They’ll visit Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and Detroit on Wednesday and Phoenix and Las Vegas later in the week.
Planned stops in Savannah, Georgia, and Raleigh, North Carolina, were postponed because of Tropical Storm Debby ’s effects, and rain associated with it could also upend a scheduled stop in Durham, North Carolina.
“It’s no surprise that San Francisco Liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coast wannabe Tim Walz as her running-mate – Walz has spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State,” said Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s campaign press secretary. “Walz is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide.”
Walz has been a strong public advocate for Harris in her campaign against Trump and Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, labeling the Republicans “just weird” in an interview last month. Democrats have seized on the message and amplified it since then.
During a fundraiser for Harris on Monday in Minneapolis, Walz said: “It wasn’t a slur to call these guys weird. It was an observation.”
WALZ RECORD AS GOVERNOR
As governor, Walz had to find ways to work in his first term with a legislature that was split between a Democratic-controlled House and a Republican-led Senate. Minnesota has a history of divided government, though, and the arrangement was surprisingly productive in his first year. But the COVID-19 pandemic hit Minnesota early in his second year, and bipartisan cooperation soon frayed.
Walz relied on emergency powers to lead the state’s response. Republicans chafed under restrictions that included lockdowns, closing schools and shuttering businesses. They retaliated by firing or forcing out some of his agency heads. But Minnesotans who were stuck at home also got to know Walz better through his frequent afternoon briefings in the early days of the crisis, which were broadcast and streamed statewide.
Walz won reelection in 2022 by nearly 8 points over his GOP challenger, Dr. Scott Jensen, a physician and vaccine skeptic. Democrats also kept control of the House and flipped the Senate to win the “trifecta” of full control of both chambers and the governor’s office for the first time in eight years. A big reason was the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which held that the Constitution doesn’t include a right to abortion. That hurt Minnesota Republicans, especially among suburban women.
“Tim has been in the news because the country and the world is seeing the guy we love so much,” U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Monday.
Ken Martin, chair of the Minnesota-Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party said young people he spoke to on the campaign trail were “Walz pilled.”
Walz and other Democrats went into the 2023 legislative session with an ambitious agenda — and a whopping $17.6 billion budget surplus to help fund it. Their proudest accomplishments included sweeping protections for abortion rights that included the elimination of nearly all restrictions Republicans had enacted in prior years, including a 24-hour waiting period and parental consent requirements. They also enacted new protections for trans rights, making the state a refuge for families coming from out of state for treatment for trans children.
Their other major accomplishments included tax credits for families with children that were aimed at slashing childhood poverty, as well as universal free school breakfasts and lunches for all students, regardless of family income. They also enacted a paid family and medical leave program, legalized recreational marijuana for adults and made it easier to vote.
Republicans complained that Walz and his fellow Democrats squandered a surplus that would have been better spent on permanent tax relief for everyone. And they’ve faulted the governor and his administration for lax oversight of pandemic programs that cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Federal prosecutors charged 70 people with defrauding federal food programs that funded meals for kids during the pandemic out of $250 million on Walz’s watch. Known as the Feeding Our Future scandal, it’s one of the country’s largest pandemic aid fraud cases. The Office of the Legislative Auditor, a nonpartisan watchdog, delivered a scathing report in June that said Walz’s Department of Education “failed to act on warning signs,” did not effectively exercise its authority and was ill-prepared to respond.
Republicans still criticize Walz for his response to the sometimes violent unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, which included the torching of a police station.
During a May fundraiser in St. Paul, Trump repeated his false claim that he was responsible for deploying the National Guard to quell the violence. “The entire city was burning down. ... If you didn’t have me as president, you wouldn’t have Minneapolis today,” Trump said.
It was actually Walz who gave the order, which he issued in response to requests from the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul. But within Minnesota, GOP legislators said both Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey were too slow to act. And there was finger-pointing between Frey and Walz on who was responsible for not activating the Guard faster.
Walz has served often as a Biden-Harris surrogate, and has made increasingly frequent appearances on national television. They’ve included an interview on Fox News that irritated Trump so much that he posted on Truth Social, “They make me fight battles I shouldn’t have to fight.” Walz is also co-chair of the rules committee for the Democratic National Convention. And he led a White House meeting of Democratic governors with Biden following the president’s disastrous performance in his debate with Trump.
Putting Walz on the ticket could help Democrats hold the state’s 10 electoral votes and bolster the party more broadly in the Midwest. No Republican has won a statewide race in Minnesota since Tim Pawlenty was reelected governor in 2006, but GOP candidates for attorney general and state auditor came close in 2022.
Trump finished just 1.5 percentage points behind Democrat Hillary Clinton in the state in 2016. While Biden carried Minnesota by more than 7 points in 2020, Trump has taken to falsely claiming that he won the state last time and can do it again.
Minnesota has produced two vice presidents, Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale.