Who is Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s pick for Vice President?

Kamala Harris selects Tim Walz as running mate, aiming to balance ticket and appeal to diverse voters.

Kamala Harris picked Tim Walz as her running mate on Tuesday (August 6, 2024), opting for the Minnesota Governor as the partner most likely to complement her in a historic — and bruising — bid for the White House.

Mr. Walz had been on a shortlist with a string of other Democratic figures seen as broadening Ms. Harris’s appeal as she sprints into the contest against Donald Trump. Aiming to make history as the first woman president, Ms. Harris — already a trailblazer as the first female and first Black and South Asian Vice President — has little time before Election Day on November 5.

Expectations had always been that Ms. Harris would pick a white man to balance the ticket — and the kind of Democrat who can help counter attacks from Republicans that she is too far to the left.

Mr. Walz, a 60-year-old U.S. Army National Guard veteran and former teacher, was elected to a Republican-leaning district in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006 and served 12 years before being elected Governor of Minnesota in 2018.

As Governor, Mr. Walz has pushed a progressive agenda that includes free school meals, goals for tackling climate change, tax cuts for the middle class and expanded paid leave for Minnesota workers.

Mr. Walz has long advocated for women’s reproductive rights but also displayed a conservative bent while representing a rural district in the U.S. House, defending agricultural interests and backing gun rights.

As the state’s top executive, Mr. Walz mandated the use of face coverings during the COVID-19 pandemic and signed a law making marital rape illegal. He presided over several years of budget surpluses in Minnesota on the road to his 2022 reelection.