Tim Walz Is Said to Be Harris’s Choice for Vice President
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.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, has chosen Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota as her running mate, according to multiple people briefed on the matter, though a formal announcement has not yet been made. Mr. Walz has been notified that he is the pick and has accepted her offer, according to two people directly familiar with the decision.
The choice elevates 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. 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.
Walz now faces the urgent task of introducing himself to the country with about three months left before an election that has already been rocked by historic turmoil. The political tests ahead include a potential debate against Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), whom Trump tapped as his running mate in July.
Harris will hold her first rally with Walz on Tuesday in Philadelphia, the first stop in a four-day tour of battleground states that includes visits to Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and elsewhere.
Harris’s choice of a running mate was among the most closely watched decisions of her fledgling campaign, as she sought to bolster the ticket’s prospects for victory in November and rapidly find someone who could be a governing partner. In picking Walz, she has selected a seasoned politician with executive governing experience, and signaled the importance of Midwestern battleground states such as Wisconsin and Michigan.
Walz’s foray into politics came later in life: He spent more than two decades as a public school teacher and football coach, and as a member of the Army National Guard, before running for Congress in his 40s. In 2006, he defeated a Republican to win Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District — a rural, conservative area — and won reelection five times before leaving Congress to run for governor.
Walz was first elected governor in 2018 and handily won reelection in 2022. He emerged publicly as one of the earliest names mentioned as a possible running mate for Harris, and in the ensuing days he made the rounds on television as an outspoken surrogate for the vice president.
“These are weird people on the other side. They want to take books away, they want to be in your exam room. … They are bad on foreign policy, they are bad on the environment, they certainly have no health-care plan, and they keep talking about the middle class,” Walz told MSNBC in July. “As I said, a robber baron real estate guy and a venture capitalist trying to tell us they understand who we are? They don’t know who we are.”
Walz also has faced criticism from Republicans that his policies as governor were too liberal, including legalizing recreational marijuana for adults, protecting abortion rights, expanding LGBTQ protections, implementing tuition-free college for low-income Minnesotans and providing free breakfast and lunch for schoolchildren in the state.
But many of those initiatives are broadly popular. Walz also signed an executive order removing the college-degree requirement for 75 percent of Minnesota’s state jobs, a move that garnered bipartisan support and that several other states have also adopted.
“What a monster. Kids are eating and having full bellies, so they can go learn, and women are making their own health-care decisions,” Walz said sarcastically in a July 28 interview with CNN when questioned on whether such policies would be fodder for conservative attacks, later adding: “If that’s where they want to label me, I’m more than happy to take the [liberal] label.”
Walz also spoke at a kickoff event in St. Paul for a Democratic canvassing effort, casting Trump as a “bully.”
“Don’t lift these guys up like they’re some kind of heroes. Everybody in this room knows — I know it as a teacher — a bully has no self-confidence. A bully has no strength. They have nothing,” Walz said at the event, sporting a camouflage hunting hat and T-shirt.
Walz has explained that he felt some Democrats’ practice of calling Trump an existential threat to democracy was giving him too much credit, which prompted his decision to denounce the GOP nominee instead as being “weird.”
“I do believe all those things are a real possibility, but it gives him way too much power,” Walz said on CNN’s “State of the Union” regarding the Democrats’ rhetoric. “Listen to the guy. He’s talking about Hannibal Lecter, shocking sharks, and just whatever crazy thing pops into his mind.”
Walz was rewarded for his willingness to attack the Trump-Vance ticket and his embrace of the liberal label, earning the endorsement of a coalition of left-leaning groups that touted him as “a credible and respected voice that has a track record of winning over and exciting an electorate, especially the ability to turn out young voters, immigrants, and independents in swing states.”
If Walz is elected vice president, under state law, Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D) would assume the governorship for the rest of his term. Minnesota Senate President Bobby Joe Champion, a Democrat, would become lieutenant governor.
In picking Walz, Harris passed over several other Democratic governors who were under consideration, including Shapiro, Andy Beshear of Kentucky and J.B. Pritzker of Illinois.
Harris faced an effective deadline of Aug. 7 to select a running mate. That is when Democratic National Committee officials had hoped to formally nominate its ticket to avoid running afoul of ballot qualification deadlines in various states.
Here’s what else to know:
Securing the nomination: Ms. Harris secured her party’s nomination for president, earning the support of 99 percent of the 4,567 delegates who cast ballots, the Democratic National Committee said late Monday. In an unusual move, the roll call was held virtually over five days, instead of in person at the party’s convention.
Closely watched primaries: Democratic and Republican primaries will take place in some high-profile races today — including for a Senate race in Michigan, governor’s races in Washington and Missouri, and the Democratic primary for the seat of Representative Cori Bush of Missouri, who faces a challenger supported by spending from powerful pro-Israel groups.
A rapid pace: The presidential race has run at warp speed ever since Ms. Harris replaced President Biden at the top of the ticket two weeks ago. Analysts from both parties say that the sprint to Election Day — which may skirt some of the scrutiny and detailed policy debates that candidates usually experience in an extended campaign — will likely benefit the vice president.
The race tightens: Ms. Harris’s standing in the polls against former President Donald J. Trump, her Republican rival, has improved since her campaign officially began. The two candidates are in a tight race in both national polls and in the battleground states.
