America’s heartland is commendably getting the political recognition it’s due this year, with Republicans and Democrats tapping a pair of Midwesterners to balance out presidential tickets headed by a New Yorker and a San Franciscan.
Of two newly minted running mates, only one brings an authentic Midwest voice and sensibility to the race. It’s Minnesota’s Carhartt-clad governor, Tim Walz — a former teacher and football coach, an Army National Guard veteran, a former congressman, and a Democrat now in the middle of his second gubernatorial term.
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On Tuesday morning, Kamala Harris, the California-born vice president and Democratic presidential nominee, announced that she’s selected Walz to run as her vice president. It’s a historic moment in Minnesota, already home to two vice presidents, Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale, and now potentially a third.
Walz is an experienced, pragmatic leader at both the state and federal levels. He has the temperament and constitution to serve. And he brings to the race rural America bona fides that beat by a country mile those of Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, a venture capitalist and Ohio senator far removed from his family’s Appalachian roots.
Like Humphrey, Walz was born outside Minnesota but made his home here. Humphrey was a South Dakota native. Walz grew up in small-town Nebraska before settling in Mankato, where he taught and coached at Mankato West High School. He ran for the U.S. House in 2006, defeating GOP incumbent Gil Gutknecht to represent southern Minnesota’s mostly rural First District.
Walz’s new national prominence comes as no surprise to the Star Tribune Editorial Board. We saw Walz’s political potential when he first ran for Congress. In 2006, the Editorial Board endorsed him, writing then that he “radiates energy, optimism and critical thinking — qualities that Washington could use right now.” Those qualities should sound familiar to the new fans Walz has made after recent high-profile national media appearances.
We’ve had policy differences with him through the years, but Walz has continued to earn our support for elected office. In fact, there may not be another Minnesota politician with a longer string of Editorial Board endorsem*nts. In addition to 2006, Walz earned our support for U.S. House in 2008, 2010, 2014 and 2016. There’s no 2012 endorsem*nt because the Editorial Board concentrated on other races that year as Walz cruised to a fourth term.
Walz went on to earn our gubernatorial endorsem*nt in 2018 and again in 2022. Across the years, there’s a through-line we’ve admired: his work ethic, down-to-earth style and focus on issues important to Minnesota.
In Congress, Walz was an energetic advocate for Minnesota’s farmers and veterans, reaching out across political lines to craft solutions after a scheduling-delay scandal enveloped the Veterans Affairs medical system. He championed a milestone ethics reform — the STOCK Act — which banned congressional insider stock trading.
His service as a noncommissioned officer in the Army National Guard brought an enlisted soldier’s perspective to Congress, a welcome change. His foreign affairs analytical skills also served him well. One particularly memorable moment from endorsem*nt interviews: Walz telling the Editorial Board of the threat posed by Russia years before Putin’s aggression became an international crisis. That alarm stands in in notable contrast to Vance’s disdain for Ukrainians battling the Russian invasion.
As governor, Walz’s teaching skills played a vital role in leading the state through the COVID-19 pandemic, with a 2022 editorial noting that Minnesota bested many others on two key indicators: the per capita death rate and the state’s economic performance. Another analysis, one done by Politico, also favorably rated Minnesota’s pandemic response.
Critics contend that Walz has morphed from moderate to liberal during his time in the governor’s residence. Voters concerned by that should delve more deeply. The policy accomplishments earning what’s supposed to be a derogatory liberal label instead have broad appeal.
They include: one of the nation’s most generous child tax credits, universal free school lunch, abortion access protections, new safeguards for those with medical debt and sensible gun control measures such as stronger penalties for straw gun buyers. Another laudable policy: a tuition-free college pathway called the North Star Promise Scholarship Program for students whose families earn below $80,000 annually.
These measures may have cost Walz some rural support from his first gubernatorial election to his second, but he gained ground in 2022 in the state’s most populous counties, including metro suburbs. That suburban voter appeal is a key asset Walz brings to the Harris campaign.
While there’s much to like about Walz’s policies, he should still face tough-but-fair questions about the violence after George Floyd’s death and how it was handled. The Feeding Our Future scandal also happened on his watch. The “One Minnesota” platform he ran on in 2018 has also been elusive. It’s also important to note for this editorial that the Star Tribune’s publisher previously worked in the Walz administration.
Walz’s Midwest-dad style has been a formidable force on the campaign trail. In media appearances, he’s prosecuted the case against Trump with positivity and memorable one-liners, such as dubbing the opposition “weird.” This “Happy Warrior” vibe worked well for another Minnesota VP candidate, Hubert Humphrey, and is a refreshing change in the 2024 race.
In contrast to Walz, Vance’s connection to heartland voters feels forced. He’s a Yale Law grad with ties to Silicon Valley billionaires. Despite his best-selling book “ Hillbilly Elegy,” Vance grew up in Middletown, Ohio, a Cincinnati suburb. Vance, in his book, also seems to blame Appalachian residents for poverty, drug use and other problems. Yet what this region needs isn’t an elegy but a helping hand, like Minnesota’s universal school lunches or North Star Promise Scholarship Program.
Walz, who graduated from Nebraska’s Chadron State College, spent much of his adult life as a teacher and a noncommissioned officer before entering politics. His path to this moment is self made, and one that should feel both familiar and reassuring to voters in the Midwest and elsewhere.
— Star Tribune
