Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic party’s presumed 2024 nominee for president has officially chosen Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor, as his running mate.
Walz is a former member of Congress now in his second term as governor of Minnesota, where Democrats have carried the state nearly every presidential-election year for decades — though this cycle it’s being targeted by Trump.
With Walz on the national ticket, Harris can not only fortify her standing in Minnesota, but she also helps herself two states over in Wisconsin and Michigan.
Walz, who also serves as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association where Harris is certain to help raise money, has helped deliver record donations this year.
In Minnesota, which Walz has led for the past year after Democrats won full control of state government in 2018, several high-priority progressive initiatives passed into law: protection against local restrictions on abortion; legalization of marijuana use and sales by adults outside a framework similar to provinces or Native American reservations; language that would prevent mentally ill individuals from legally purchasing guns designed primarily for rapid fire aimed at killing other human beings.
Walz, who was raised in rural Nebraska, enlisted in the Army National Guard soon after high school graduation. He returned to Nebraska and graduated from Chadron State College in 1989, where he received his degree in social science education.
After getting his Master of Education, Walz spent one year teaching English and American History in China as part of a program at Harvard University, then from 1990 to the present has been an educator by trade with three years coaching high school football and basketball while patrolling small Nebraska towns. He later moved to Mankato, Minn., where he taught geography at Mankato West High for six years.
Walz retired from the National Guard in 2005 as a command sergeant major after being deployed to Italy supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in 2003. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2006 and re-elected five times, representing Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District — a vast rural area including several midsize cities.
He spent his final two years on Capitol Hill as a ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. Walz was first elected governor in 2018 and re-elected four years later.
The roll call and formal nomination of Harris as the party’s vice presidential nominee will precede Walz in Tuesday night’s programming, with other Democratic officials expected to focus on party unity at a time when Republicans are facing their own problems.
The Democratic National Committee announced on Friday that Harris had officially sealed up the party’s 2024 nomination for president after overwhelming all competitors in voting among pledged delegates prior to its national convention.
DNC e-voting for their party’s 2024 standard-bearer commenced less than two weeks after Biden revealed he would not be seeking re-election, and endorsed the former vice president to replace him on top of the ticket. A dismal showing against Trump in a debate at the end of June in Atlanta had led to calls from some within his own party that the 81-year-old president should withdraw, with questions swirling as he mumbled out answers.
Biden’s timely endorsement of Harris on Friday prompted a flood of support by Democratic governors, senators, House members and other party leaders. Less than 36 hours later, Harris declared that she had earned the nomination as her party’s chosen one by securing more than half of almost 4,700 in-person convention delegates.
Harris is poised to be officially announced as the party’s nominee after the virtual roll call concludes at 6 p.m. Monday. Under DNC rules, Harris will then get to choose her running mate. The convention’s chair would then announce that candidate as the party’s vice-presidential nominee.
Harris and Walz are set to embark Tuesday on a campaign swing through all seven key battleground states, starting with an event in Philadelphia.
