On Tuesday, Vice President Harris announced that Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota will join her team as the vice presidential candidate. Approximately two weeks ago, President Biden unexpectedly announced his retirement from the race, handing over the Democratic presidential campaign to Harris.
“Being a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he has made contributions to working-class families like his,” Harris evaluated Walz in an article on X, “I am delighted that he can join our team.”
If Walz secures the official nomination from the Democratic Party, he will be facing off against former President Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance.
Walz, before serving as a teacher and congressman, had served in the military for over twenty years. Here are 32 things about him:
1. He is 60 years old, born in 1964 in West Point, Nebraska. His father Jim Walz passed away in 1983.
2. He and his wife Gwen have two children, a daughter named Hope and a son named Gus.
3. He is a Lutheran and if elected, Walz will be the second Lutheran to enter the White House after Vice President Hubert Humphrey. The United States has never had a president of the Lutheran faith.
4. He attended Chadron State College and Minnesota State University, majoring in Social Science Education during his undergraduate studies and obtaining a master’s degree in Education Leadership during his graduate studies.
5. He served in the Army National Guard for 24 years, retiring as a Command Sergeant Major from the 1-125 Field Artillery Regiment in 2005 before the unit’s deployment to Iraq.
6. Walz was a teacher for twenty years at Mankato West High School in Mankato, Minnesota.
7. He also served as a football coach at Mankato West High School, leading the team to its first state championship.
8. Walz briefly taught in China from 1989 to 1990 as part of a group of American educators approved by the Chinese authorities to teach at Chinese high schools.
9. He volunteered for John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign and served as the county coordinator for the campaign and as the regional coordinator for Vets for Kerry.
10. Like Harris, he is a progressive, supporting legislation ensuring abortion rights, labor unions, organized labor, and strict gun control. During a recent campaign fundraising call with Harris, Walz stated, “Never shy away from our progressive values. One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborhood watch.”
During his tenure as governor, Minnesota issued driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants. Additionally, Walz issued an executive order protecting minors’ transgender surgeries and treatments, including those from out-of-state.
11. He was elected to Congress in 2006, representing the Republican-leaning 1st congressional district of Minnesota after defeating Republican Congressman Gil Gutknecht.
From January 2017 to January 2019, he served as the ranking member on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. According to the Lugar Center at Georgetown University, he was ranked seventh in bipartisanship among members of the 114th Congress, making him the highest-ranking retired soldier in Congress at the time.
12. He shifted his stance on gun issues during his gubernatorial campaign, previously supporting gun rights in Congress but supporting the ban on so-called assault weapons in Minnesota during his 2018 campaign. In 2023, he signed a bill allowing authorities to confiscate firearms when someone is deemed a danger to themselves or others, commonly known as “red flag” laws.
13. He introduced the STOCK Act in Congress, aimed at limiting insider trading and unethical gift-giving behaviors among lawmakers. The Senate version of the bill, sponsored by Senator Joseph Lieberman, became law in 2012.
14. He proposed the Military Taxpayer Assistance Act, aiming to establish a department within the Internal Revenue Service to provide “outreach services, education, and assistance” for veterans and military personnel.
15. He was a co-sponsor of the Student Non-Discrimination Act in 2018, which aimed to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in public schools. The bill also allowed federal departments and agencies to revoke funding from recipients or institutions found in violation of the act.
16. He condemned the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 from his brief teaching stint in China during that period. In 2014, he commented to reporters in Congress that the protests before the massacre gave a sense of “the spread of freedom around the world, which was a very optimistic feeling.”
He said, “I remember waking up on June 4th and seeing the news, realizing the unthinkable had happened.”
“I was privileged to witness the spirit of the Chinese people, as they tried to be proud of their country and understood the need to ignite the light of freedom,” Walz said.
17. In 2018, he co-sponsored a ban on assault weapons, amending federal law to “criminallyize the intentional import, sale, manufacture, transfer, or possession of semi-automatic assault weapons (SAWs) or high-capacity magazines.”
18. He introduced the 2018 Veterans Medicinal Marijuana Research Act, which, when passed, would authorize the Department of Veterans Affairs to “conduct and support research on the efficacy and safety of certain marijuana and marijuana delivery systems for medicinal purposes.”
The act aims to assist veterans enrolled in the Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system who have been diagnosed with chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other conditions.
19. He co-sponsored legislation to raise the minimum wage with Congressman Robert Scott, proposing the Raise the Wage Act to amend the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act to increase the federal minimum wage for regular employees, tipped employees, and newly hired employees under 20 over a seven-year period.
20. He was elected governor in 2018 and won re-election in 2022 with significant margins in both elections.
21. He faced pressure in 2020 due to the unrest in Minnesota following the George Floyd incident in Minneapolis. He called in the National Guard but rejected the federal resources offered by the Trump administration.
22. He declared support for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in their presidential campaigns.
23. As governor, he signed laws reforming law enforcement practices in Minnesota, including restrictions on the use of chokeholds during arrests.
He stated, “The death of George Floyd has heightened the necessity for meaningful police reform across the state.”
“After decades of advocacy from communities of color and Native communities, the bipartisan passage of these measures is a key step towards justice.”
24. He signed a law changing the way Minnesota allocates electoral votes, granting the state’s electoral votes to the nationwide popular vote winner, regardless of whether the candidate won in Minnesota. However, the agreement will only take effect once a sufficient number of states sign the agreement (at least 270 electoral votes).
25. He expanded paid family leave in Minnesota, signing a bill extending paid family leave for Minnesotans to up to 20 weeks annually.
In a statement in 2023, he said, “By signing the law for paid family and medical leave, we ensure that Minnesotans do not have to choose between their paychecks and taking time off to care for a new baby or a sick family member.”
26. He implemented strict COVID-19 pandemic containment policies, including stay-at-home orders. His public safety department established a hotline for reporting individuals violating these orders.
27. If elected, he would become the third vice president from Minnesota, following Vice President Hubert Humphrey under President Lyndon B. Johnson and Vice President Walter Mondale under President Jimmy Carter.
28. He has close relations with unions and labor organizations. Labor groups mentioned in a letter urging Harris to select Walz that “as governor, he has always been an ally of working-class families.”
29. In the Hamas war, he expressed support for Israel in response to the attacks launched by Hamas against Israel. He immediately spoke at a synagogue after Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7th.
He stated, “This morning’s apparent scenes on Saturday are absolutely devoid of humanity, terrorism, and barbarism. This is not a discussion about geopolitics. This is a massacre.”
30. He condemned anti-Semitism acts on college campuses, emphasizing the need to believe Jewish students when they express feeling unsafe, stating, “Creating space for political dissent or political rallies is one thing. Intimidation is another.”
31. He called for an “effective ceasefire” in the conflict between Israel and Hamas, stating in March this year during an interview on a local radio station.
32. He has garnered support from the teachers’ union, being described by the National Education Association as a “staunch supporter of public school students and education workers, an ally of working-class families and unions.”