By Steve Karnowski and John Hanna
Compiled by: Bitpush
Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. The 60-year-old Democrat and military veteran has been in the spotlight through a series of outspoken TV appearances following Biden's decision to drop out of the presidential race. He has made Minnesota a bastion of liberal policies, and this year, Minnesota became one of the few states to protect fans from buying tickets online for Taylor Swift concerts and other live events.
Things you need to know about Waltz:
Waltz is from rural America
It would be hard to find a more vivid representation of Americaâs heartland than Waltz, who was born in West Point, Neb., a city of about 3,500 northwest of Omaha. He joined the National Guard and worked as a teacher in Nebraska.
In the 1990s, he and his wife moved to Mankato in southern Minnesota, where he taught social studies and coached football at Mankato West High School, including leading the team to the first of the school's four state championships in 1999. He still mentions his union membership there.
Waltz served in the Army National Guard for 24 years, rising to the rank of command sergeant major, one of the highest enlisted ranks in the military, but because he did not complete all of his training before leaving the service, his benefits rank was set at staff sergeant.
He has demonstrated his ability to connect with conservative voters.
Waltz defeated a Republican incumbent in his first run for Congress in 2006, when he defeated six-term Rep. Jill Gutknecht in a mostly rural congressional district in southern Minnesota. Waltz tapped into votersâ anger at President George W. Bush and the Iraq War.
During his six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, Walz has consistently championed veteransâ issues.
He also shows a down-to-earth side through social media video posts with his daughter, Hope. Last fall, they tried the Slingshot ride at the Minnesota State Fair after talking about fair food and his daughter's vegetarianism.
He could help Harris win in key Midwestern states
While Walz isn't from the critical "blue wall" states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, where both parties believe they need to win, he's right next door. He could also ensure Minnesota remains in Democratic hands.
Thatâs important because former President Trump portrayed Minnesota as a hot state this year, even though the state hasnât elected a Republican to statewide office since 2006. A Republican presidential candidate hasnât won the state since President Richard Nixonâs landslide victory in 1972, but Trump has campaigned there.
When Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton decided not to seek a third term in 2018, Walz ran on a âOne Minnesotaâ theme and won the office.
Waltz also speaks with ease about issues that concern Rust Belt voters. He has been a champion of Democratic causes, including union organizing, workers' rights and a $15-an-hour minimum wage.
He has experience dealing with divided governments.
In his first term as governor, Walz faced a legislative divide between the Democratic-led House and the Republican-controlled Senate, which opposed his proposals to increase funding for schools, health care and roads through tax hikes. But he and lawmakers reached compromises that made the state's divided government still appear productive.
Bipartisanship became more difficult in his second year as governor as he used his governorâs emergency powers to close businesses and schools during the coronavirus pandemic. Republicans pushed back, forcing some agency heads out of office. Republicans also criticized Waltz for what they saw as his slow response to sometimes violent unrest in 2020 following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
Things got easier for Walz in his second term after he defeated Republican Scott Jensen, a nationally known vaccine skeptic. Democrats took control of both legislatures, paving the way for state government to take a more liberal course, helped by large budget surpluses.
Walz and lawmakers have rolled back nearly all past Republican restrictions on state abortion, protected gender-affirming care for transgender youth and legalized the recreational use of marijuana.
Democrats rejected Republican requests to use state budget surpluses to cut taxes and instead funded free school meals for children, free public college for students whose families make less than $80,000 a year, a paid family and medical leave program and health insurance regardless of a personâs immigration status.
He is good at expressing his political views with his voice
Last month, Waltz called Republican nominee Trump and running mate JD Vance "weird" in an interview on MSNBC, and the Democratic Governors Association, of which Waltz is chairman, expanded on that view in an article on X. Waltz later reiterated that characterization on CNN, citing Trump's repeated references to Hannibal Lecter, the fictional serial killer from the movie "The Silence of the Lambs," in campaign speeches.
The phrase quickly became a theme for Harris and other Democrats, and threatens to become a rallying cry for this destined-to-be-strange 2024 election.
Additionally, Waltz is known for his calls for stricter regulation of the crypto industry.