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“Vice President Kamala Harris picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate on Tuesday… In choosing Walz, she is turning to a Midwestern governor, military veteran and union supporter who helped enact an ambitious Democratic agenda for his state, including sweeping protections for abortion rights and generous aid to families.” AP News
The left praises Walz, arguing that he can relate to middle America.
“Jake Tapper noted that under Walz, Minnesota had legalized recreational marijuana, passed background checks on guns, expanded LGBTQ protections, implemented tuition-free college for low-income Minnesotans and approved universal free breakfast and lunch for school kids. Would that record be an asset, Tapper asked, or just allow Trump to label Walz another big government liberal?…
“It was the type of question that has left many Democrats stammering. Walz just grinned. ‘What a monster!’ he said. ‘Kids are eating and having full bellies so they can learn, and women are making their own health care decisions… And we’re a top-five business state… I’m more than happy to take the label.’…Walz knows how to sell [a] message in a way that resonates with Middle America — and across the country.”
Patricia Lopez, Bloomberg
“Trump’s campaign sent an email attacking Harris’ new running mate: ‘Tim Walz will unleash HELL ON EARTH!’ But I gotta ask: Would it be hell to have a vice president who listens to Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift? Would it be hell to be governed by a former social studies teacher who was the football coach and the faculty advisor for the high school’s first gay-straight alliance club? Would it be hell to be guided by an ex-Army ‘Sarge’ who hunts and ice fishes and supports red flag laws?… Walz brings big Middle American dad energy to the Democratic ticket.”
Jessica Karl, Bloomberg
“Walz is aggressively normal; his public persona is the human embodiment of a dad joke. This non-threatening masculinity allows him to posit his own progressive values as normative American values – and to contrast the Republicans’ maximalist social conservative agenda as a creepy intrusion on the American way of life. [It was Walz] who famously first described the Trump-Vance ticket as ‘weird’, a playful pejorative that the Harris campaign quickly seized on…
“For decades, Democrats have feared seeming ‘weird’, feared that too robust a commitment to their policy positions would alienate an America that they imagined as fundamentally conservative. But times have changed. It is the Democrats, now under the banner of Harris and Walz, who can argue that their progressive vision represents the American mainstream.”
Moira Donegan, The Guardian
At the same time, “As governor of the state where George Floyd was murdered, [Walz] faced significant pressure to sign on to defunding police. Yet he rejected the idea, instead signing a slate of police reforms that kept police funding static in 2020 and sending $300 million to local public safety offices in 2023. Walz has become the left’s factional choice not because he’s one of them, but because he was the best they could plausibly hope for.”
Zack Beauchamp, Vox
The right is critical of Walz, arguing that his policies are too far to the left.
The right is critical of Walz, arguing that his policies are too far to the left.
“Since he was elected governor in 2018, Walz has banked hard to the left… After his party took over a one-seat majority in the state senate in 2022, Walz embraced nearly every insane idea they rammed through the legislature, including drivers’ licenses for illegal aliens, marijuana legalization, voting rights for convicted felons, stricter gun laws, and automatic, permanent mailing of ballots to people who sign up just once to vote by mail…
“Walz signed a law mandating ‘antiracist’ education in ‘ethnic studies’ in elementary, middle, and high schools and compelling critical race theory training for teachers… Meanwhile, nearly half of the state’s public-school students can’t read at grade level… The state went so pro-abortion [that it enshrined] a ‘fundamental right’ to abortion until the moment of birth.”
Dan McLaughlin, New York Post
“By his own admission, Walz’s response to the George Floyd riots was an ‘abject failure.’ Hesitant to offend far-left rioters, he was slow to react, failed to form a coherent response to the violence, and waited far too long before calling up the National Guard to restore order. At least he didn’t also raise money for a Black Lives Matters bail fund, as Harris did, to release violent criminals who went on to rape and murder more innocent civilians…
“Walz’s governing incompetence is extensive. His office oversaw the largest theft of taxpayer money during COVID-19. He funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to a corrupt nonprofit organization called Feeding Our Future using COVID-19 bailout dollars. FBI Director Christopher Wray called it ‘the largest pandemic relief fraud scheme yet.’… According to a state legislature audit, Walz chose to ignore red flags and funneled more and more taxpayer money to his corrupt political allies.”
Editorial Board, Washington Examiner
“Even in Minnesota, traditionally the furthest left politically among Midwest states, Mr. Walz is not overwhelmingly popular and received a slightly smaller percentage of the vote during his 2022 re-election—52%—than he did in 2018, when he won with nearly 54%. Years of hard experience have turned off Minnesota moderates. Voters nationwide now have limited time to study Mr. Walz and understand the threat to American prosperity he represents.”
James Freeman, Wall Street Journal
“Under Mr. Walz Minnesota has become a high-crime state. Student achievement has tumbled as spending on schools has skyrocketed. Per capita gross domestic product has fallen below the national average. Minnesotans have joined residents of New York, California and Illinois in fleeing their home state… The idea that he can appeal to voters who don’t already support Ms. Harris seems far-fetched.”
Scott W. Johnson, Wall Street Journal
