Chicago – August 08, 2024
Kamala Harris’s choice of Tim Walz as running mate has been met with acclaim from US Democrats across the party spectrum.
The little-known governor of Minnesota has strong blue-collar appeal, from his small-town origins in the state of Nebraska, through careers in teaching, football coaching and the United States National Guard, all the way to the second slot on the election ticket.
Plain-speaking “Coach Walz” – as Harris referred to him at a joint campaign event in Philadelphia on Monday – has nailed the party’s most effective attack line yet, his description of Republican candidate Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance as “weird” echoing through several news cycles.
On the domestic front, Walz’s trajectory over the past 18 years has seen the former member of the US Congress move from supporting gun rights, a traditionally right-wing position he repudiated after a 2018 shooting in Florida, to adopting some of the country’s most progressive policies as state governor.
Last year, he passed a raft of laws dubbed the “Minnesota Miracle”, expanding workers’ rights and women’s reproductive rights, strengthening LGBTQ protections, prioritising clean energy, and introducing free meals for all state school children.
Such policies have made Walz a darling of the Democratic left, his nomination as VP attracting high praise from the likes of Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
But as former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, it might be more accurate to describe him as “right down the middle”, a “heartland of America Democrat”.
