Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is a true dark horse: an unassuming, nerdy former high school teacher, military veteran and politician who is, gosh darnit, a nice guy.
Few ordinary Americans outside his home state had ever heard of the staunch progressive, much less considered him vice presidential material, until he helped pivot the Democratic messaging against Donald Trump from “threat to democracy” to plain old “weird.”
One thing he shares in common with J.D. Vance: Walz loves a good old (diet) Mountain Dew, his drink of choice after he gave up alcohol following a DUI in 1995.
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Chosen by Kamala Harris on Tuesday morning to be her running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket, Walz, 60, was the highest-ranking enlisted soldier to serve in Congress, he was a member of the House of Representatives for a dozen years before his successful run for governor in 2018. He’s the first person on a Democratic presidential ticket not to have attended law school since Jimmy Carter in 1980. He received a bachelor’s degree in education from Chadron State College and a master’s degree from Minnesota State University.
Tim Walz celebrates next to his wife, Gwen Walz, during an election night party in 2018.
Stephen Maturen/Getty ImagesWalz brings a rural, Midwestern—“Minnesota nice”—sensibility to the Democratic ticket as Harris and Walz blast off on a five-day tour of must-win battleground states, starting Tuesday evening in Philadelphia.
Walz can also go toe-to-toe with Trump’s running mate on a key issue for Democrats in the 2024 election: reproductive rights. Especially after Vance’s slight against Democrats like Harris as “childless cat ladies.”
He and his wife of three decades, Gwen Whipple, opened up about their struggle with infertility after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that embryos created through in vitro fertilization should be considered children, jeopardizing the legality of IVF across the country. They have two children, Hope, a young women who graduated from Montana State University last spring, and Gus, who is a 17-year-old senior in high school. Hope is named to reflect Whipple and Walz’ IVF journey together.
Walz shot into the spotlight last month after he coined the viral label “weird” for Trump and Vance. Fans fawned over his Midwestern “BDE” dad vibes.
The new vice presidential aspirant steered his state’s response to COVID-19, police reform following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and a slew of progressive legislative achievements, including legalization of marijuana, and paid family leave. He’s also provided sanctuary to undocumented immigrants and issued them driver’s licenses at a time where conservative governors were bussing—or, in the case of Ron DeSantis, flying—migrants to blue states across the country.
Minnesota has a history of providing vice presidential winners, with Hubert Humphrey (to Lyndon B. Johnson) and Walter Mondale (to Carter) previously winning office.
Many political analysts and journalists have noted that Walz’ policy victories and beliefs are largely in line with those of Harris, who’s six months younger than him.
That’s largely where the similarities stop, however. Walz is a true midwesterner, through and through, with rural roots hailing from Valentine, Nebraska, a town of just over 2,000 people. He met his wife near there, where they were both teachers, and Walz has previously described himself as “a big pheasant hunter.”
Walz also served in the Army National Guard in Nebraska and Minnesota, where he was a Command Sergeant Major.
The governor is also a lover of dogs—an affinity he’s regularly shared with his constituents. He held a news conference to announced the arrival of an adopted black Lab mix named Scout in 2019. Last year, he documented a rescue operation to get Scout from out of he and his wife’s second-story bedroom, where he’d locked himself in and had to be rescued through a window.
Perhaps Walz’ biggest stain on his record is his mid-90s DUI arrest, in which he was driving 96 mph in a 55-mph zone in Nebraska. He was booked and had his mugshot taken, which began circulating again on Tuesday afternoon. Walz, whose blood alcohol level was .128 at the time, gave up drinking after the incident.
Walz is expected to be complementary to Harris as someone everyday people, especially those in battleground midwestern states like Wisconsin and Michigan, can connect with. He’s also expected to be a good counter to J.D. Vance, whose supposed small-town Appalachian roots have been called into question in recent weeks.
