With Tim Walz as her running mate, Democrat Kamala Harris has chosen a man whose biographical profile is a stark contrast to her own. The former prosecutor in California is relying on a former teacher from the Midwest, a veteran and hunter.
The most important things at a glance:
Walz, 60, has been governor of the state of Minnesota since 2019 and previously served for many years as a member of the House of Representatives. Before his political career, he was a teacher. The father of two does not have a strong national profile, but is known for his down-to-earth and direct way of conveying political messages.
Walz was born in 1964 in a small town in rural Nebraska. He often talks about how his mother struggled to make ends meet after his father died. After high school, Walz joined the National Guard. He attended college and graduated in 1989 with a degree in social sciences.
Walz spent a year abroad teaching before returning to the United States to serve full-time in the National Guard and eventually taking a job as a high school teacher and football coach.
While teaching, Walz met his future wife, who taught at the same school. Walz won his first election in 2006 and became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2018, he ran for governor and was re-elected in 2022.
Walz currently serves as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association (DGA), an association of Democratic governors, and serves on several of the party’s committees at the federal level.
Former Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp told the New York Times that Walz appears to be “someone with a life experience comparable to that of many people in rural America.”
As governor, he advocated for free school meals, protecting the right to abortion, strengthening voting rights, expanding renewable energy, cutting taxes for the middle class, and expanding paid leave for workers in Minnesota.
His attitude towards guns has changed over the years. “I am a veteran, a hunter and a gun owner. But I am also a father. And for many years I was a teacher,” he wrote on Platform X at the end of July. Gun laws are not a threat to his rights. “It’s about protecting our children.”
