Tim Walz: Who is Kamala Harris' running mate?

Right now, Kamala Harris is still vice president. But since President Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy for the November 5 election, she is also the Democrats' presidential candidate. And that means she needs a running mate herself.

On Tuesday morning local time, Harris announced that the job is going to Tim Walz, the Democratic governor of Minnesota. 

"I am proud to announce that I've asked Tim Walz to be my running mate," Harris said in a statement on social media platform X. "As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he's delivered for working families like his. It's great to have him on the team."

Walz was a candidate whom observers had recently added to their shortlist of potential VP picks that would complement Harris and be an asset in the Democrats' campaign for the White House.

He said in a post on X that it was "the honor of a lifetime" to be picked as Harris' running mate.

"I'm all in," the former teacher wrote. "Vice President Harris is showing us the politics of what’s possible. It reminds me a bit of the first day of school."

Walz, a Midwest man of the people

Minnesota isn't known as a swing state (it has voted for the Democrats in the past 12 presidential elections), and it only has 10 votes in the Electoral College. But the Democratic Party hopes Walz can appeal to voters outside of his home state as well, particularly in the Midwest and in rural areas.

Walz enlisted in the National Guard after high school and served for 24 years. He also worked as a school teacher, abroad in China first and then back in the US, in the states of Nebraska and Minnesota, where he coached his high school's football team to its first-ever state championship.

"He is not very well known nationally, but his background enables him to speak to a certain section of the electorate with credibility," Filippo Trevisan, a political scientist at American University in Washington, D.C., told DW. 

Trevisan believes the Harris campaign chose Walz to "reach out to voters they need in the rural parts of America."

"Walz has called out [Donald] Trump and [his running mate JD] Vance for not knowing the middle class," Trevisan said, "whereas Walz is from the middle class."

Political career with progressive successes

From 2007 to 2019, Walz represented his Minnesota district in the US House of Representatives, where he served as a ranking member on the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.

In 2018, he won the election for governor of Minnesota. During his tenure, he spearheaded several progressive policy drives in his state, such as protecting abortion rights, legalizing recreational marijuana and providing free school meals to all kids.

Calling the Trump ticket 'weird'

Walz started the short race for Harris' VP pick as somewhat of an underdog but made many media appearances in which he played up his rural roots — he and his three siblings were raised in the small town of Valentine, Nebraska — and everyman appeal.

He broke into the spotlight when he called the Republican ticket of Trump and Vance "weird" in an interview with US broadcaster MSNBC. The label went viral and was taken up by the Harris campaign, which has used it in press releases and social media posts.

Walz has also stated that he believes Republicans have destroyed rural America and divided the people there. The goal of the Harris/Walz ticket, he says, is to bring people together around values like strong public schools and affordable health care.

Edited by: Martin Kuebler