Getting to know the Democratic Party’s 2024 Vice Presidential nominee.
The Tim Walz story began in West Point, Nebraska on April 6, 1964. Spending much of his youth on a farm, he and his family moved to a rural town following his father’s cancer diagnosis. Walz would enlist in the National Guard at the age of 17, where he’d serve for the next 24 years.
Walz’s teaching career began in 1989 after graduating from Chadron State College. He took a position teaching English and American history in Guangdong, China. Walz returned to his home state of Nebraska as a teacher and coach. It was during this period that he met his wife Gwen Whipple, who was also a teacher. They married in 1994 and would have 2 children.
The Walz’s moved to Minnesota in 1996, where he became a successful football coach and influential teacher, becoming his school’s inaugural advisor to the gay-straight alliance club. Walz and his wife established a company during this time named Educational Travel Adventures, which took American high school students on summer trips to China until 2003.
In 2006, Walz ran for the House of Representatives for Minnesota’s 1st congressional district, which leaned Republican. Despite being an underdog, Walz won the election on a strong anti-Iraq War plank.
During Walz’s 12 year tenure in the House, he served on a variety of committees including the Agriculture Committee, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and Veteran Affairs Committee, of which he was a ranking member.
Early on, Walz opposed efforts by the U.S. government to bail out large corporations in the wake of the Great Recession, even introducing legislation meant to force the government to give up temporary control of several notable auto manufacturers.
A dominant theme of his time as representative was his commitment to infrastructure and education, which was best shown with his support for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009.
One of Walz’s key contributions in the House was his backing of the STOCK Act. This legislation, passed in 2012, was one of the defining successes of Obama’s first term and aimed to prevent members and employees of congress from using insider information to trade stocks.
Walz would gain a reputation as one of the most bipartisan members of the House, and from 2015 to 2017, more than half of the bills he co-sponsored were introduced by non-Democrats.
For much of Walz’s time as a Representative, he was notably pro-gun. In 2016, he even received an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association (NRA), a financial backer, but he shifted away from them. His last years in congress were defined, in part, by his support for gun control measures and his repudiation of the NRA.
Tim Walz ran for governor of Minnesota in 2018, and won handily, defeating his opponent by over 11%.
The Walz administration has boasted a great amount of legislative success. Following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Walz helped push through a number of police reform laws including legislation that changed police training techniques and limited the use of chokeholds.
Abortion is heavily protected in Minnesota, with it being legal during all three trimesters and the state allowing individuals from other states with more restrictive laws to have the procedure done there. This is due to two pieces of legislation Walz signed in 2023.
Also in 2023, Walz signed a law that legalized recreational cannabis, making good on an earlier campaign proposal.
The governor has approved billions in additional education spending and in one of his defining accomplishments made school meals free for all students.
On Aug. 6, 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris announced Governor Walz as her running mate in the 2024 Presidential election.
He immediately played a role in reinvigorating the Democratic party’s election chances, following President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race, specifically with his coining of prominent Republicans as “weird.”
As the election nears, America will decide if the teacher from Nebraska really is vice presidential material.