Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz listens after meeting with President Joe Biden, in Washington, on July 3.Jacquelyn Martin/The Associated Press
In choosing Tim Walz as her running mate, Kamala Harris has picked someone whose greatest asset is what he is not.
Not a strident ideologue. Not a strong, alienating personality. Not a preening, ambitious figure angling for the top job. Not likely to cause fissures within the campaign or, later, in the White House.
Also: not weird.
But there is one additional element that he is not, and that factor might have implications in the three months before Election Day. He is not going to bring a state’s electoral votes with him.
The other finalists for a Democratic presidential campaign – one that will need every edge it can get to defeat Donald Trump – would have given Ms. Harris the 19 electoral votes of Pennsylvania (Governor Josh Shapiro’s great appeal) or the 11 of Arizona (the calling card of Senator Mark Kelly).
This choice gives Ms. Harris nothing that she doesn’t already have – the 10 electoral votes of Minnesota, which has voted for a Democrat in 14 of the past 15 presidential elections.
Explainer: Who is Tim Walz? Things to know about Kamala Harris’ choice for vice president
Mr. Walz catapulted to national attention only recently with a single word. The modern incarnation of General Anthony McAuliffe – who responded to a German demand that he surrender his troops during the Second World War’s Battle of the Bulge with a one-syllable answer (“nuts”) – Mr. Walz became known for describing Mr. Trump with a single syllable of his own (”weird”).
Even so, the selection of Mr. Walz provides a vital test of a principle that Mr. Trump set out last week in one of the few convictions of his that are congruent with the views of academic political scientists: “Historically, the vice-president, in terms of the election, does not have any impact.”
Those who know Mr. Walz believe this year may be different.
The governor, who served in the Army National Guard for two dozen years, is decidedly not elite (a good match with J.D. Vance). He is a one-time teacher and high-school football coach (not the usual modern Democrat with a résumé chock full of elected offices). He is decidedly normal (comfortable wearing Carhartt in a cornfield or a suit greeting dignitaries).
“Governor Walz is a down-home, salt-of-the-earth guy,’’ said David Lillehaug, a former Minnesota Supreme Court justice. “He’s the smart teacher who could joke with you but still keep the school lunchroom under control. As the nation’s about to see: meet him, like him.”
Mr. Walz would be the third Minnesotan to serve as vice-president, following Hubert Humphrey (1965-1969) and Walter Mondale (1977-1981). His background, however, most closely matches that of the Texan Lyndon Johnson (1961-1963), who graduated from Southwest Texas State Teachers College and who, as a young man, taught at the Welhausen Mexican School. Mr. Walz has degrees from Chardon State College and Minnesota State University, Mankato and taught at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where he met his wife Gwen.
All three – Messrs. Johnson, Humphrey and Mondale – eventually ran for president themselves. When a group of moderate House of Representatives Democrats were angling to nudge Joe Biden out of the presidential race only a month ago, one of the political figures they thought would be a formidable replacement for the President was Mr. Walz.
Before being elected governor, Mr. Walz was a member of the House for 12 years. He has a healthy 56 per cent approval rating in a state where Republicans and Democrats have distrusted each other for four decades, mostly over social issues such as abortion. He campaigned for governor as a moderate but, some of his critics say, governed as a progressive.
Republicans will focus their fire on Mr. Walz’s controversial decisions while Minneapolis burned during the 2020 George Floyd riots, and will attempt to tar him with the Feeding the Future scandal in Minnesota, an attempt to steal more than $40-million from the Federal Child Nutrition Program. Republicans almost certainly will attempt to tie the governor to Senator Bernie Sanders, the social democrat from Vermont who urged Ms. Harris to select Mr. Walz in recent days.
They also will focus on his efforts to preserve abortion rights in the state, provide gender-related health care and offer free breakfast and lunch meals to some students. “What a monster!” Mr. Walz told CNN recently. “Kids are eating and having full bellies so they can go learn and women are making their own health care decisions.”
One of Mr. Walz’s Minnesota predecessors as vice-president, Mr. Humphrey, was told just before he accepted the nomination that he would be subservient to Lyndon Johnson in every way. He was told there was to be no distance between the two on even the most trivial matter, that every speech he delivered would have to be vetted and approved by the Johnson staff, and that at no time would the vice-president put himself in a position where he outshined the president in even the slightest way.
Such a lecture will not be necessary in this case.
“Just knowing the two personalities, Kamala and Tim will work very well together,” said Democratic Representative Annie Kuster of New Hampshire, who served with Mr. Walz on the House Veterans Affairs Committee. “They both use humour to disarm conflict and strife. He won’t outshine her. This is not someone who has angled for national office his whole life. He will be so overcome with the concept of being vice-president of the United States that he will be totally respectful and deferential to her.’’
Vice President Kamala Harris has picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate, turning to a Midwestern governor, military veteran and union supporter who helped enact an ambitious Democratic agenda for his state.
The Associated Press
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Tim Walz has a degree from the Mankato campus of the University of Minnesota. He earned a degree at Minnesota State University, Mankato. This version has been updated.