MN Governor Tim Walz is Democrats’ VP Pick

Governor Tim Walz at a Bemijidi, MN steel plant. Photo from Minnesota Governor’s Office is in the public domain.

The veepstakes are over.

Presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is expected to pick Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to serve as her running mate.

The selection of Walz will keep Midwestern politics front and center in the campaign.

Walz, first elected in 2018 and reelected in 2022, will attempt to deliver key swing states for the Democratic ticket. The governor is a former public school teacher and military member.

He’ll also attempt bring his frank charm, not unlike Governor Tony Evers, to the campaign trail. In July, Walz called Donald Trump “weird” for his frequent comments about the “wonderful Hannibal Lector,” a fictional serial killer, went viral and became a Democratic messaging point.

Harris, the current vice president, and Walz will make their first joint appearance Tuesday afternoon in Pennsylvania.

The duo is also scheduled to make their first Wisconsin appearance this week. They are to be appear at a rally Wednesday in Eau Claire, just an hour drive from Minnesota.

Republican VP nominee JD Vance is hosting his own rally in the northwestern Wisconsin city that day, the Trump campaign announced Monday.

The Minnesota governor, 60, was selected over two swing state finalists: Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro and Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona. All three were said to have met with Harris over the weekend in a rapid pace running mate selection process.

Harris herself only became the nominee on July 21 when President Joe Biden announced he was ending his reelection bid and endorsing his vice president.

Before being elected governor, Walz served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2019. His district included the southern portion of Minnesota, a primarily rural area. He is a former member of the Army National Guard.

Prior to politics, Walz worked as a school studies teacher in Mankato. He is a native of Nebraska.

There is precedent for a Minnesotan to become vice president.

Hubert Humphrey served as a vice president to Lyndon Johnson from 1965 to 1969. In 1968, he lost a race for the presidency to Richard Nixon.

Walter Mondale served as VP under Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1981. He ran for president in 1984 against Ronald Reagan, but lost in a landslide.

Walz and Harris are slated to be officially picked as the ticket at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The event is scheduled to take place from Aug. 19 to 22.

Walz will need to hightail it out of the DNC. The popular Minnesota State Fair starts Aug. 22. A photo of Walz holding a piglet at a prior year’s event went viral on social media shortly after his selection as VP leaked.

Before Harris confirmed the selection, the Trump campaign attacked it. “It’s no surprise that San Francisco Liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coast wannabe Tim Walz as her running-mate – Walz has spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State,” said campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a statement. “While Walz pretends to support Americans in the Heartland, when the cameras are off, he believes that rural America is ‘mostly cows and rocks’ [ed: It was a 2017 statement about population density and maps]. From proposing his own carbon-free agenda, to suggesting stricter emission standards for gas-powered cars, and embracing policies to allow convicted felons to vote, Walz is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide. If Walz won’t tell voters the truth, we will: just like Kamala Harris, Tim Walz is a dangerously liberal extremist, and the Harris-Walz California dream is every American’s nightmare.”