Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks to reporters after meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House on July 3, 2024. 

(Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

Progressives and Working-Class Advocates Push Tim Walz for VP

"I want somebody who's really strongly pro-labor and understands labor, because this is a big part of the working-class agenda and making sure that we win working-class votes," Rep. Pramila Jayapal said in supporting Walz. 

A number of progressives and left-leaning political figures this week suggested that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris should choose Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.

Walz was the subject of a flurry of media attention over the last week, including glowing coverage in The Washington Post and The New York Times on Friday, as the Democrats ran an accelerated search for their vice presidential candidate.

While there hasn't been an organized progressive effort to push for Walz, he's regarded as the most friendly to left and working-class causes of the politicians known to be in the running, all of whom are white men. Progressives have expressed concerns over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who's seen by many as the most likely choice.

"I want somebody who's really strongly pro-labor and understands labor, because this is a big part of the working-class agenda and making sure that we win working-class votes," Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in explaining why she favored Walz, The Hill reported Friday.

Walz's appeal, buoyed by the sense that he's a straight-talking everyman, goes well beyond progressive circles. Born and raised in Nebraska, he served in the National Guard and worked as a high school teacher and coach. He served six terms as a Democrat in U.S. Congress, representing a rural area of Minnesota that borders Iowa. In 2016, he won reelection in a district that 2024 Republican nominee Donald Trump won handily.

In 2018, Walz successfully ran for governor, and was reelected in 2022—this time with Democrats in the majority in both houses of the state Legislature. (The state party is called the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.) They quickly turned the state into what NBC News called "a laboratory in pushing progressive policy."

Under Walz's leadership, Minnesota became the fourth state in the country to provide free school lunches for all students. The state also set up a paid family and medical leave program and a tax credit for low-income Minnesotans. Walz also signed into law the strictest rules in the country on "forever chemicals" that endanger public health.

Walz and his Democratic allies banned spending on state and municipal elections by firms that were 5% or more foreign-owned—nearly every S&P 500 firm—and thereby reduced the pernicious effects of the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling on the state's elections. They also established trans rights, secured fundamental abortion rights, and made it possible for undocumented people to get driver's licenses.

David M. Perry, a Minnesota-based journalist and historian, said in an MSNBC opinion piece this week that he was initially skeptical of Walz, figuring him to be a conservative Democrat who wouldn't push an ambitious agenda, but had changed his mind—"entirely Walz-pilled," as he put it. He applauded Walz for the many state-level legislative accomplishments, and cited only "questionable decisions" during the 2020 George Floyd uprisings in the governor's negative column.

Shawn Fain, president of the United Automobile Workers union, on Thursday told The Detroit News that he supported either Walz or Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear to be the Democratic vice presidential nominee, citing their strong pro-labor records. Some groups have called for Fain himself to be the vice presidential nominee.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), a progressive member of "the Squad," also voiced for support for Walz and Beshear in a social media post on Friday. Gun rights activist David Hogg has likewise been promoting Walz on social media.

The Wall Street Journal wrote about Walz's "folksy demeanor" on Thursday, while the Post on Friday asked, in a highly complimentary profile, if the Minnesota governor could go "from teaching history to being part of it."

Ezra Klein, a left-leaning podcast host at the Times, released a full-length interview with Walz on Friday titled "Is Tim Walz the Midwestern dad Democrats need?"

Klein's first question focused on a word Walz had used that helped catapult him to relative fame in the last week: "weird," which the governor had used to describe Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio).

The "weird" criticism of the Republican leaders went viral and was quickly picked up by Harris herself. Whether she will pick up the inventor of the attack onto her ticket remains to be seen. She secured the necessary votes to become the nominee on Friday and she's expected to announce her choice of running mate as early as Saturday.


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