Meet Our Vice Presidential Candidate Tim Walz
Vice President Harris picked a midwestern powerhouse governor to be her running mate. And we’re here for it.
While you may not have heard much about the current Governor of Minnesota until just the last few weeks, Tim Walz has been earning the trust and adoration of his constituents since his election in 2019 by focusing his time in office on basic quality-of-life and income issues as the foundation of his administration.
With a narrow one-vote majority in the state legislature, Walz was able to enact a host of sweeping, universalist measures last year, ranging from protections of reproductive freedom to voting rights protections to landmark climate initiatives to the state’s largest-ever increase in its education budget, including a free school-lunch program.
A recent CNBC study ranks Minnesota as one of the top five states in the nation for businesses, with a huge push from the Walz administration to expand a number of technological industries in Minnesota, including microchip production and broadband access.
And to the delight of his conservative Minnesotans, the Department of Minnesota Management and Budget recently announced that the state has a $3.7 billion budget surplus projected for the two-year budget that ends in 2025, up about $1.3 billion from the last projection in December.
Learning his craft in Congress.
Walz enjoyed over a decade of productive service in Congress as a prelude to running for Governor. He beat a six-term Republican incumbent for the seat—one of the biggest upsets in the country that year.
Tim Walz was a centrist Democratic member of the House of Representatives. As a representative of a rural, conservative-leaning district, Walz staked out a position among House Democrats as a moderate member and was dubbed the 7th-most bipartisan lawmaker in the 114th Congress by the Lugar Center.
Walz’s primary work in the House was on the Veterans’ Affairs and Agriculture committees. As ranking member of the Veterans’ Affairs committee, Walz co-sponsored the Veteran Skills to Jobs Act which directed federal departments and agencies to count military training toward satisfying training or certification requirements for federal licenses.
On the House Agriculture Committee, Walz had a hand in crafting the Farm Bill, a sprawling piece of bipartisan legislation. He sat on conference committees for the 2014 and 2018 versions, helping hammer out the final compromises and urging lawmakers to “reject radical ideology and embrace bipartisanship.”
While in Congress from 2007 through 2019 representing Minnesota’s 1st District, where he was elected by a huge Republican voter majority, Walz sponsored or co-sponsored nearly 3,000 bills.
An avid hunter, Walz was a favorite of the National Rifle Association when he served in Congress, picking up endorsements and donations from the powerful gun rights group. He became a supporter of stricter gun control laws after the 2018 Parkland shooting and donated $18,000—all of the contributions he received from the NRA—to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes fund, a charity that helps families of service members who were injured or killed.
A strong background in social service.
His ability to work across the aisle may have been honed while Walz was enlisted in the Army National Guard in Nebraska in 1981 at the age of 17. In 2003, he was sent to Italy, where he served with the European Security Force to support the war in Afghanistan. He was also stationed in Norway for joint training with other NATO militaries. After serving 24 years, he retired honorably in 2005 as the top enlisted soldier for 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery Regiment, in the Minnesota National Guard as Sergeant Major.
During his time in the National Guard, he worked odd jobs before earning a social science bachelor’s degree in 1989 from Chadron State College using the GI Bill benefit. Tim spent a year teaching abroad before returning home to serve full time in the Army National Guard and eventually accepted a high school teaching and coaching position. He also served as a faculty advisor for the school’s gay-straight alliance.
Life lessons through teaching.
While teaching, Tim met his future wife, Gwen Whipple, who taught at the same school. He and Gwen married in 1994, moving two years later to Mankato in Minnesota, his wife’s home state, where he worked as a geography teacher and football coach at Mankato West High School. Their two children were both children conceived through IVF treatments, giving Tim a personal connection to our women’s healthcare concerns of today.
Tim Walz is no stranger to hard work. He was born in rural West Point, Nebraska, in 1964, and grew up spending summers working on his family’s farm. His father died of cancer when he was 19, and his family relied on Social Security survivor benefit checks to make ends meet, another connection to one of our most important policy concerns at stake in this 2024 election.
We’re in it to win it. Spread the good news!
