US Vice President and Democratic Party presidential candidate Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate in the November US presidential election. But who is Walz and does this choice enhance or hinder Harris’ chances of defeating former US president and Republican candidate Donald Trump and his running mate Senator J.D. Vance? And what does it mean for everyone living outside the United States, who get no vote, but have to live with the consequences of the US election?
What do we know about Tim Walz?
Walz, 60, has been a popular Minnesota governor, elected twice, with a healthy 56 per cent home state approval rating in a recent survey. But he is disliked by Republicans in his state, who complain that he campaigns as a moderate but governs as a progressive.
Expect this to be a line of attack the Trump-Vance campaign will pursue, charging that Walz doesn’t know who he is (just as Trump attacks Harris for identifying both as Indian and Black) and thus voters won’t know what they are getting.
Progressives strongly backed Walz’s selection partly because of his handling of the riots after George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis in 2020 (something Republicans are already criticizing as too lenient). Progressives championed his backing of protection for abortion rights in Minnesota, his support for unions, a child tax credit, paid family leave, and a school lunch programme. But his voting record while in Congress was considered more conservative than 81 per cent of Democrats in Congress at the time.
Walz’s pick was endorsed by Democratic Senator Joe Manchin from West Virginia, the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, and by Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, one of Congress’s most progressive members. Someone is going to have buyers’ remorse.
One challenge the Democrats will face is introducing Walz to the nation. He is barely known outside of Minnesota. Prior to his selection, seven-in-ten Americans had no opinion about him.
Moreover, Walz is not quite the rural vote whisperer that some Democrats hope. In his 2022 gubernatorial race he did no better than Joe Biden did in the Minnesota counties that voted Republican in the 2020 elections.
The Harris campaign seems to be banking on the fact that Walz was repeatedly elected to Congress from a Republican district and that, as a result, he will play well in the Midwestern states Harris needs to win. But Minnesota is a better-educated, more urban, and more liberal state than Wisconsin, Michigan, or Pennsylvania. How well this folksy former football coach and social studies teacher who was born in farm country will play in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Detroit remains to be seen.
Implications for foreign policy
As a backbench member of Congress and then as a Midwestern governor, Walz is a bit of a blank slate on international issues, as were all of his major rivals for the nomination.
Walz has been outspokenly supportive of Ukraine. And, as governor, he signed a bill ending Minnesota’s investments in Russia. Like most US politicians, he supports the state of Israel, and has condemned Hamas. But he also voiced support for a two-state solution in the Middle East and expressed sympathy for the humanitarian issues in Gaza.
Walz was, for 24 years, a member of the Army National Guard, and was the highest-ranking enlisted soldier ever to serve in Congress. But he is not seen as a hawk. His policy work has largely focused on veterans’ issues.
Unlike many American politicians, Walz has spent some time overseas. During his time in the National Guard, Walz deployed to Europe for several months.
He also taught English in China for a year and reportedly speaks some Mandarin. And he estimates he has visited China about 30 times. Walz served on the human rights-focused Congressional-Executive Commission on China for 11 years, where he was a strong advocate for religious freedom in Tibet.
Walz’s views on China seem to fall in line with the Biden-Harris administration’s approach. In a 2016 interview he argued that the US needed to stand firm in the South China Sea, but that America’s relationship with China did not necessarily need to be adversarial and that there were many areas of potential cooperation. Whether his views have evolved since then is unclear.
Walz, as a member of Congress, opposed free trade agreements with Peru, Colombia and Panama and the fast-track authority designed to speed up congressional approval for trade agreements. He is a strong supporter of the Biden administration’s focus on labour rights in trade deals.