Tim Walz Is Kamala Harris’s Choice for Vice President: Live Election Updates
"The Minnesota governor, a former high school teacher and National Guard member, brings to the ticket Midwestern appeal and a plain-spoken way of talking about Donald Trump.
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Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, has chosen Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota as her running mate, elevating a former football coach whose rural roots, liberal policies and buzzy takedowns of former President Donald J. Trump have recently put him on the map. The vice president formally announced her selection in a post on Instagram.
“One of the things that stood out to me about Tim is how his convictions on fighting for middle class families run deep,” Ms. Harris wrote in the post. Mr. Walz, 60, emerged from a field of candidates who had better name recognition and more politically advantageous states. But he jumped to the top of Ms. Harris’s list, boosted by cable news appearances in which he declared that Republicans were “weird.” The new, clear articulation of why voters should reject Mr. Trump caught on fast and turned the spotlight on the plain-spoken Midwesterner behind it.
Senator JD Vance, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, told reporters that he called Gov. Tim Walz to congratulate him on his selection as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate. He said he left the Minnesota governor a voicemail telling Walz, "Look forward to a robust conversation, and enjoy the ride." Then he added, "Maybe he’ll call me back, and maybe he won’t.”
Congressional Democrats from Tim Walz’s home state of Minnesota have quickly lined up in support of the pick. Representative Ilhan Omar praises his policy achievements as a governor and adds that he will bring “Minnesota nice to the ticket.” Representative Angie Craig borrows from Walz’s recent viral political attacks aimed at Donald Trump and JD Vance, saying the governor is “not weird.”
And Representative Dean Phillips, the Minnesota Democrat who waged a futile challenge against President Biden earlier in the Democratic primaries, praised the selection of his state’s governor to the ticket. “Tim Walz can fix a lawnmower, fire a cannon, and fiercely protect women’s freedoms. All in one day,” he said.
In his State of the State address in March, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota shared a personal story: To conceive his daughter, he and his wife had gone through treatments for in vitro fertilization that stretched over seven years.
His experience was not widely known before that month, and he explained that he had not been open about it in previous years because “your personal decisions about your family are no one’s business but your own.’’
Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, wasn’t always a Minnesotan. He was born in rural Nebraska in the small community of West Point, a town of roughly 3,500 people 60 miles northwest of Omaha.
His mother was a community activist and his father a public school administrator who died of cancer two years after Mr. Walz enlisted in the Army National Guard at age 17, according to The Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Plenty of reactions coming in today, but one from the Mankato Area Public Schools district in Minnesota stands out. Walz first taught in the district back in 1996, and the superintendent, Paul Peterson, said Tuesday that Walz’s “journey from our classrooms to a national candidacy is a source of inspiration for our entire school community.”
Tim Balk
Reporting on politicsSenator Joe Manchin III, a Democrat-turned-independent from West Virginia who has sought to push the Democratic Party to the center, expressed support for Kamala Harris’s selection. “My friend Governor Tim Walz will bring normality back,” he said in a statement.
As Kamala Harris was landing on her choice of a vice-presidential candidate, a few things about Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota brought him to the front of the pack.
According to two people directly familiar with her decision-making, the economic policies Mr. Walz has championed as governor, including a statewide child tax credit and a paid-leave program, are the kinds of measures a Harris administration would try to enact on a national scale.
Tim Walz’s use of the word “weird” to describe the Trump ticket has earned him admiration among progressives. But it’s also part of a strategy he’s described of trying to diminish former President Trump and break his “spell,” as he often calls his appeal. “Shrink him, shrink the message,” he said on the podcast Pod Save America last week. “And then really start to focus on it.”
Former President Barack Obama has weighed in: “Like Vice President Harris, Governor Tim Walz believes that government works to serve us. Not just some of us, but all of us. That’s what makes him an outstanding governor, and that’s what will make him an even better vice president,” he wrote in a statement on X.
We reported that Obama informally advised the vice president during the process of picking a running mate.
Tim Balk
Reporting on politicsGov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky, who was on a short list of options for Kamala Harris’s running mate, said in a statement that he was honored to have been considered but that Walz was a “great friend and a great choice.”
Tim Balk
Reporting on politicsBeshear, 46, who has won two elections for governor of Kentucky, a deep-red state, must leave office in 2027 because of term limits, raising questions about his political future. His father, former Gov. Steve Beshear, said in an interview last week that his son had told him, “This could well be the last political office I ever hold, and if that’s the case, it’s OK.”
Gun safety groups are praising Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential choice of Tim Walz, citing his signing of a sweeping omnibus bill this year that included universal background checks, a so-called Red Flag law and large investments in community-based violence prevention programs.
“Kamala Harris has spent her entire public service career making communities safer, and with Governor Walz as her running mate, she has a partner who shares this fundamental commitment,” Angela Ferrell-Zabala, executive director of Moms Demand Action, said in a statement. Walz, a gun owner who hunts pheasants and turkeys, has evolved on the issue of gun rights. He once received endorsements from the National Rifle Association, but he shifted to the left as he ran for governor in 2018.
Advocates of more generous child care policies have started to praise Kamala Harris’s choice of Tim Walz. “VP Harris is doubling down on her commitment to children and families by choosing Governor Walz as her running mate, as he has one of the best records on care policies in the nation,” Julie Kashen, the director for women’s economic justice at the Century Foundation, said in a statement.
“From signing paid leave into law to lowering child care costs and making child care options more available, Walz has been on the forefront of promoting common-sense care policies,” she added. “Imagine what the two of them together can do for America’s families.”
Tim Balk
Reporting on politicsSenator Mark Kelly of Arizona, who was seen as a top contender to be Kamala Harris's running mate, said on social media that Harris and Walz would “move us forward” and build a campaign to “unite our country.” The senator added that he and his wife, Gabrielle Giffords, would “do everything we can to help them win.”
Reid Hoffman, one of the Democratic Party’s single biggest givers, had previously said he had some favorites for the veepstakes but didn’t want to reveal them. He said today, “Couldn’t be more excited to support Gov. Tim Walz as the pick for VP.”
Abortion rights and anti-abortion groups agree on one thing: A Harris-Walz administration would work hard to expand abortion rights. The president of Reproductive Freedom for All called Walz “a steadfast champion for reproductive freedom, working tirelessly to protect and expand abortion access for Minnesotans.” And the group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America called him and Harris “the most pro-abortion presidential ticket America has ever seen.”
Representative Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland, already has a future role in mind for Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, now that Shapiro has lost out on the vice-presidential nomination: “I’ll bet anybody he’s lead candidate for attorney general” in a Harris administration, Raskin said in an interview with The New York Times.
Until recently, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota was a virtual unknown outside of the Midwest, even among Democrats. But his stock rose fast in the days after President Biden withdrew from the race, clearing a path for Ms. Harris to replace him and pick Mr. Walz as her No. 2.
Here’s a closer look at the Democrats’ new choice for vice president.
Former Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican who is waging an uphill campaign for the Senate, again broke with his party on Tim Walz, praising the pick.
“We had the chance to work together as fellow governors, and while we come from different parties, I have always appreciated his dedication to public service,” Hogan said in a statement. “I believe we need more governors at the national level because governors have to actually get stuff done.”
Tim Balk
Reporting on politicsTransportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who was a contender to be Harris’s running mate, said on social media that Walz had been “an exceptionally effective governor — and also great to work with.” Buttigieg, who lives in Michigan and served in the Navy Reserve, added: “I’m excited for what his Midwestern voice, military experience, and common-sense values will bring to our winning ticket.”
And the campaign is already selling Harris-Walz merch, from yard signs to T-shirts. That was fast.
Tim Balk
Reporting on politicsAs Republicans portray Tim Walz as extreme, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi disputed the notion that he is on his party's left flank, telling MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that Walz is “right down the middle.” Pelosi, who served with Walz in the House, called him a “heartland” Democrat. “To characterize him as left is so unreal,” said Pelosi, a California Democrat.
In her Instagram post, Kamala Harris ran through highlights of Tim Walz’s biography, including his time as a National Guardsman and as a high school teacher, football coach and adviser of the school's Gay-Straight Alliance. She also pointed to his efforts as governor to work with Republicans on bipartisan measures while also signing progressive bills into law, including those providing constitutional protections for abortions and “requiring universal background checks for gun purchases.”
Josh Shapiro, who was a top contender to be Harris’s running mate, confirmed in a social media post that he will be at the Philadelphia rally tonight. He promised to work “to unite Pennsylvanians behind my friends Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and defeat Donald Trump.”
Vice President Kamala Harris just formally announced her selection of Tim Walz in a post on Instagram.
“One of the things that stood out to me about Tim is how his convictions on fighting for middle class families run deep,” Harris wrote.
If Kamala Harris is elected president alongside Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, who has been chosen as her running mate, the state’s lieutenant governor would get a history-making promotion.
Under the succession plan laid out in Minnesota’s Constitution, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, 44, would become the state’s first female governor, as well as the first Native American person to assume the role.
Tim Walz has been notified that he is the pick and has accepted Kamala Harris's offer to be her running mate, two people directly familiar with the decision tell me.
Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the newly announced running mate to Vice President Kamala Harris, has worked with his state’s Democratic-controlled Legislature to enact an ambitious agenda of liberal policies: free college tuition for low-income students, free meals for schoolchildren, legal recreational marijuana and protections for transgender people.
“You don’t win elections to bank political capital,” Mr. Walz wrote last year about his approach to governing. “You win elections to burn political capital and improve lives.”
A little more than a year into Tim Walz’s first term as governor, he faced his biggest test.
His state, already in the throes of the Covid-19 pandemic, was suddenly in the international spotlight after a Minneapolis police officer was filmed murdering George Floyd in May 2020."
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