Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota’s Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate ahead of the US election in November.
Walz has been Governor of Minnesota since 2019. He began his career in the military and later worked as a social studies teacher and football coach before he was elected to the US House of Representatives representing the state’s first congressional district.
On social media, Walz, 60, thanked Harris for placing her trust in him as her vice-presidential nominee for the Democratic Party.
“And maybe more so, thank you for bringing back the joy,” he wrote in one of several tweets in the past 12 hours. “I couldn’t be prouder to be on this ticket—and to help make you the next President of the United States.”
“Vice President Harris is showing us the politics of what’s possible. It reminds me a bit of the first day of school.”
“[Harris] has fought on the side of the American people. She took on predators and fraudsters, took down transnational gangs, and stood up against powerful corporate interests. And she’s never hesitated to reach across the aisle if it meant improving people’s lives.”
Harris described her running mate as “a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran.”
“He’s delivered for working families like his,” she wrote. “It’s great to have him on the team.”
“One of the things that stood out to me about Tim is how his convictions on fighting for middle class families run deep. It’s personal.”
Governor Walz caused some buzz recently when he said many Republicans, including Donald Trump and JD Vance, come across as “weird”.
“They’re running for the He-Man Women-Haters Club or something,” he said. “That’s not what people are interested in.”
Walz said that the American public gives Trump “way too much credit”.
“People keep saying Donald Trump is going to put women’s lives at risk, that’s 100 per cent true,” he said. “Trump is potentially going to end constitutional liberties that we have in voting.”
“I do believe all those things are real possibilities but it gives him way too much power. Listen to the guy — he’s talking about Hannibal Lecter and … just whatever crazy thing passing through his mind…and I think we just give him way too much credit.”
At the pair’s first appearance together at a rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Walz took another stab at his Republican counterpart: saying, “J.D studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and then wrote a best seller trashing that community.”
“Come on! That’s not what middle America is!”
Walz is currently serving his second term as Governor of Minnesota. He served in the Army National Guard for 24 years and fought strongly for veterans’ issues in Congress for over a decade.
In a series of tweets, Harris highlighted Walz’s diverse career, including his time as a teacher.
“[He is] the kind of teacher and mentor that every kid in America dreams of having and deserves,” she wrote. “The kind of coach who makes people feel like they belong, and inspires them to dream big. And that’s the kind of Vice President he will be, too.”
She also touched on his time as an adviser of the Gay-Straight Alliance.
“At a time when acceptance was hard to find for LGBTQ+ students, @Tim_Walz knew the signal it would send for a football coach to get involved in the Gay Straight Alliance. So he signed on to be the group’s faculty advisor.”
Governor Walz beat a list of white male politicians, including Governor Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona to be Harris’ running mate.
In March 2023, Governor Walz signed a bill to provide free school breakfast and lunches for students in selected schools across Minnesota. During the signing ceremony, Walz told parents: “If you’re looking for good news, this was certainly the place to be. I’m honoured and I do think this is one piece of that puzzle in reducing both childhood poverty and hunger insecurity.”
Last year, he also signed a bill which states that products like pads, tampons and other sanitary items used for menstruation “must be available to all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12.” The decision was criticised by Republicans for its gender-inclusive language.