By STEVE KARNOWSKI and JOHN HANNA Related Press
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris has selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her operating mate in her bid for the White Home. The 60-year-old Democrat and navy veteran rose to the forefront with a collection of plain-spoken tv appearances within the days after President Joe Biden determined to not search a second time period. He has made his state a bastion of liberal coverage and, this yr, one of many few states to protect fans shopping for tickets on-line for Taylor Swift live shows and different dwell occasions.
Some issues to learn about Walz:
Walz comes from rural America
It will be arduous to discover a extra vivid consultant of the American heartland than Walz. Born in West Level, Nebraska, a neighborhood of about 3,500 folks northwest of Omaha, Walz joined the Military Nationwide Guard and have become a trainer in Nebraska.
He and his spouse moved to Mankato in southern Minnesota within the Nineteen Nineties. That’s the place he taught social research and coached soccer at Mankato West Excessive Faculty, together with for the 1999 workforce that received the primary of the college’s 4 state championships. He nonetheless factors to his union membership there.
Walz served 24 years within the Military Nationwide Guard, rising to command sergeant main, one of many highest enlisted ranks within the navy, though he didn’t full all of the coaching earlier than he retired so his rank for advantages functions was set at grasp sergeant.
He has a confirmed capability to attach with conservative voters
In his first race for Congress, Walz upset a Republican incumbent. That was in 2006, when he received in a largely rural, southern Minnesota congressional district towards six-term Rep. Gil Gutknecht. Walz capitalized on voter anger with then-President George W. Bush and the Iraq battle.
Throughout six phrases within the U.S. Home, Walz championed veterans’ points.
He’s additionally proven a down-to-earth aspect, partly by social media video posts together with his daughter, Hope. One last fall confirmed them attempting a Minnesota State Honest journey, “The Slingshot,” after they bantered about honest meals and her being a vegetarian.
He may assist the ticket in key Midwestern states
Whereas Walz isn’t from one of many essential “blue wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the place each side imagine they should win, he’s proper subsequent door. He additionally may make sure that Minnesota stays within the palms of Democrats.
That’s necessary as a result of former President Donald Trump has portrayed Minnesota as being in play this yr, although the state hasn’t elected a Republican to statewide workplace since 2006. A GOP presidential candidate hasn’t carried the state since President Richard Nixon’s landslide in 1972, however Trump has already campaigned there.
When Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton determined to not search a 3rd time period in 2018, Walz campaigned and received the workplace on a “One Minnesota” theme.
Walz additionally speaks comfortably about points that matter to voters within the Rust Belt. He’s been a champion of Democratic causes, together with union organizing, staff’ rights and a $15-an-hour minimal wage.
He has expertise with divided authorities
In his first time period as governor, Walz confronted a Legislature break up between a Democratic-led Home and a Republican-controlled Senate that resisted his proposals to make use of larger taxes to spice up cash for faculties, well being care and roads. However he and lawmakers brokered compromises that made the state’s divided authorities still seem productive.
Bipartisan cooperation turned more durable throughout his second yr as he used the governor’s emergency energy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to shutter companies and shut faculties. Republicans pushed back and compelled out some company heads. Republicans additionally stay vital of Walz over what they see as his gradual response to typically violent unrest that adopted the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.
Issues obtained simpler for Walz in his second time period, after he defeated Republican Scott Jensen, a doctor recognized nationally as a vaccine skeptic. Democrats gained control of each legislative chambers, clearing the way in which for a extra liberal course in state authorities, aided by a huge budget surplus.
Walz and lawmakers eliminated nearly all of the state abortion restrictions enacted up to now by Republicans, protected gender-affirming care for transgender youth and legalized the recreational use of marijuana.
Rejecting Republican pleas that the state funds surplus be used to chop taxes, Democrats funded free school meals for kids, free tuition at public schools for college students in households incomes underneath $80,000 a yr, a paid household and medical depart program and medical health insurance protection no matter an individual’s immigration standing.
He has an ear for sound-bite politics
Walz known as Republican nominee Donald Trump and operating mate JD Vance “simply bizarre” in an MSNBC interview final month and the Democratic Governors Affiliation — which Walz chairs — amplified the point in a post on X. Walz later reiterated the characterization on CNN, citing Trump’s repeated mentions of the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter from the movie “Silence of the Lambs” in stump speeches.
The phrase shortly morphed into a theme for Harris and different Democrats, and has an opportunity to be a watchword of the undoubtably bizarre 2024 election.
Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.
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