“I am proud to announce that I’ve asked Tim Walz to be my running mate,” U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said this morning. “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.”
She went on to say:
He grew up in a small town in Nebraska, 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. At 17, he enlisted in the National Guard, serving for 24 years. He used his GI Bill benefits to go to college, and become a teacher. He served as both the football coach and the advisor of the Gay-Straight Alliance.
I share this background both because it’s impressive in its own right, and because you see in no uncertain terms how it informs his record. He worked with Republicans to pass infrastructure investments. He cut taxes for working families. He passed a law to provide paid family and medical leave to Minnesotan families.
He made Minnesota the first state in the country to pass a law providing constitutional abortion protections after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and as an avid hunter, he passed a bill requiring universal background checks for gun purchases.
But what impressed me most about Tim is his deep commitment to his family: Gwen, Gus, and Hope. Doug and I look forward to working with him and Gwen to build an administration that reflects our shared values.
Whether you are a supporter, a volunteer, a donor, a member of our staff, or your name is on the ticket: You are part of the people-powered campaign that is going to defeat Donald Trump.
We are going to build a great partnership. We are going to build a great team. We are going to win this election.
If this doesn’t convince you of the wisdom of Harris’ choice, the Trump campaign’s immediate attack on Walz as a “dangerously liberal extremist” should.
What are the Trumpers so upset about? Just this: Walz has signed bills protecting abortion access, expanding background checks for gun purchases, and legalizing recreational marijuana. He is one of the nation’s most forceful advocates for tackling climate change—signing a law requiring Minnesota to generate all of its electricity from wind, solar, and other carbon-free sources by 2040, and eliminating the climate-warming pollution generated by coal and gas-fired power plants. He also has one of the nation’s best records on childcare—signing into law paid leave, lowering childcare costs, and making childcare options more available.
One other thing about Walz—perhaps the most important at this juncture—is that he will help Kamala win the presidency.
His Midwest folksiness, his cheerful capacity to skewer Trump and Vance (“weird”), and his disarmingly upbeat can-do attitude will be terrific foils for the negative, hate-filled Trump and Vance.
Walz is a progressive populist minus the anger. In a Democratic Party dominated by lawyers, financiers, and urban coastal regions, Walz is from a small Midwestern town and was a football coach and high school social studies teacher before entering politics. He’s as close to Jimmy Stewart as the Democrats have come in many years. He’ll eat Vance for lunch without Vance even knowing.
It’s a terrific choice.
