Vice President Kamala Harris’ pick for running mate in the 2024 presidential race is Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
He isn’t a newcomer: Walz, fairly popular in his state with a 55% approval rating, is serving his second term as governor after 12 years as a representative in Congress.
His recent attack on MAGA Republicans as being “weird” became a tagline for weeks, boosting Harris’ social media presence as she ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket, while also raising Walz’s profile.
Walz made it on the Democratic ticket instead of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. While Walz’s track record makes him the ideal choice among progressive Democrats, it’s ammunition for Republicans, who disapprove of his mismanagement of government agencies as governor and of his inclination toward progressive policies despite branding himself as a moderate. This has already becoming a part of the GOP’s messaging against Walz.
A source close to the Trump campaign told Semafor the Minnesota governor “is a cornucopia of liberal psychosis,” and that he is “like a picnic for the Trump-Vance campaign.” Former President Donald Trump didn’t hide his satisfaction with the Walz pick, saying two words on Truth Social: “THANK YOU!”
Democrats gung-ho about Gov. Tim Walz
Politico spoke to two people knowledgeable of Harris’ process in picking Walz who said the vice president was impressed by Walz’s time as governor. She also wants to expand access to reproductive health, child tax credits and gun safety reform, like Walz has done during his time leading Minnesota.
In addition to his political experience, Walz is a veteran, and a former high school teacher and football coach. Walz also claims he understands “small-town America” better than Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, who also grew up in rural Ohio and wrote a memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” about it.
The Harris campaign is hoping his personal story will help him among white working-class voters in the Midwest, an advantage the campaign needed. A wide range of Democrats, from California Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who recently said he is “very impressed,” are also Walz fans.
Social media users who are fans of the Minnesota governor pointed to Walz’s “good vibe.” Walz declared July 20 as “Beyoncé Day.” He shared a funny story about his dog accidentally locking himself in the bedroom. (A ladder had to be propped against the second-floor window for the rescue.) Walz named a highway after the late singer Prince and signed the bill in purple ink. Walz likes Diet Mountain Dew over tea or coffee, and he doesn’t drink.
But none of these are policies.
Gov. Tim Walz struggles to rid fraud and waste from his agencies
The National Review’s Jim Geraghty wrote Tuesday, “The good ‘vibes’ on Walz require averting your eyes from his record as governor, “one embarrassing and egregious large-scale scandal of waste, fraud, and mismanagement after another.”
He is referring to the indictment of a nonprofit, Feeding Our Future, over fraud. This nonprofit exploited a pandemic-era program to help children in Minnesota and used more than $250 million in federal funding to buy cars, homes and jewelry. All this happened over a span of years under Walz’s Education Department, which reportedly ignored any serious issues.
Another pandemic-related provision, the Hero Pay, signed into law by Walz for front-line workers, received criticism after the Minnesota Labor Department would not verify who received checks from the program. The same negligence played out when the Minnesota Department of Human Services Behavioral Health awarded grants without following procedures for conflicts of interest.
Legislative Auditor Judy Randall said she has observed state agencies become dismissive of findings from audits, as the Star Tribune reported.
Most recently, allegations over Medicaid fraud in the state’s autism program raised alarm, prompting House Republicans to call for holding state agencies accountable. Around two dozen autism providers are being investigated.
“There’s folks, they will try and move one step ahead of us, they will continue to try and commit crimes,” Walz said at a recent press conference.
“People are going to prison” for committing these frauds, including people from Feeding Our Future, “and that’s where they need to go. And then we can continue to strengthen our protections,” he continued.
Randall said the governor’s office is “very concerned” about the reports but doesn’t know if the Walz administration will make any changes.
Is Gov. Tim Walz moderate or progressive?
Since he represented a rural district while serving in the House of Representatives, Walz enjoyed a centrist voting record. But during his time as governor he has pursued more progressive priorities.
As Geraghty from the National Review wrote, Walz’s positions include “his own self-described ‘abject failure’ on responding to the George Floyd riots, his support of making Minnesota a ‘sanctuary state’ that doesn’t cooperate with federal immigration authorities, driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants, and a hotline number established during the COVID-19 pandemic so Minnesotans could report their neighbors violating social-distancing guidelines.”
The Republican Governors Association said Walz’s policies aspire to mirror California’s “radical” agenda, like a state-level push for electric vehicles and defunding law enforcement. Even the Trump campaign attacked Walz as a “West Coast wannabe.”
Walz’s supporters continue to pitch him as someone who can reach across the aisle and deliver a win when needed. Former Democratic Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan, who ran a competitive race against Vance in 2022, praised Harris’ choice, saying, “the only card they have is to call him a name,” according to Semafor.
Calling him “a pragmatic Midwesterner Democrat,” Ryan said. “Too often candidates have fallen into the trap of getting too wonky and having a 10-point policy plan that nobody wants to listen to. … Tim has a way of speaking to the same values, the same goals, same strategies, but just doing it in a way that’s more ‘common touch’ and that people can understand.”