After weeks of anticipation—and fervent campaigning from the pool of contenders—Vice President Kamala Harris has selected her running mate. Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota who drew attention in recent weeks for deftly deploying the word “weird” to describe Donald Trump and JD Vance, beat out strong candidates like Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro and Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona to join the Democratic ticket.
Walz is hardly a household name, and Minnesota is not a battleground state for Democrats. But Walz, a former teacher and military veteran, has the kind of profile and political background that could appeal to moderates and progressive alike and enable him to court the white working-class voters who support Trump. Prior to his stint as governor, he was the rare Democrat to represent a rural district during 12 years in Congress.
Since becoming governor in 2019, Walz has embraced policies that have been characterized by Republicans as too liberal, from guaranteeing the right to abortion—and securing legal cover for patients that traveled to Minnesota for abortions—to legalizing recreational marijuana and providing free school meals for all children.
Of the candidates who were being considered for the Democratic ticket, Walz is also among the strongest on workers’ rights and labor issues—which also positions him well against Vance, who has made a name for himself as a proponent of populist policies and labor unions (though his record suggests otherwise).
Record as governor
In his first term as governor, Walz signed off on a bill that lawmakers called the strongest protections against wage theft in the country, to address the estimated $12 million in unpaid wages that Minnesota workers lost out on annually. The legislation—which had bipartisan support—made it a felony to withhold wages of over $1,000 and significantly shored up enforcement by increasing the share of investigators who looked into wage theft.
In 2023, Walz approved a wide-ranging labor bill that secured a host of protections for workers, from guaranteeing paid sick leave to banning mandatory anti-union meetings hosted by employers as well as noncompete agreements (which could also become unenforceable nationwide, if the Federal Trade Commission’s rule takes effect next month as planned). The legislation also introduced requirements for certain companies and industries to reduce injuries in warehouses and meatpacking plants and created a workforce standards board tasked with setting minimum pay and benefits for nursing home workers across the state.
Another bill extended unemployment benefits to hourly school workers, granting partial wage replacement for bus drivers and cafeteria staff if they’re unable to find work during the summer. Last year, Minnesota also became the 12th state to pass paid leave, which is slated to take effect in 2026 and will guarantee workers up to 20 weeks of leave annually with partial pay.
Support from organized labor
Since Walz emerged as a contender for the Democratic ticket, many labor advocates have come out in support of the governor. A coalition of labor leaders in Minnesota—including local affiliates of AFL-CIO and SEIU—sent a letter to Harris last week, urging her to choose Walz as her running mate and citing his record as governor. Shawn Fain, the president of the United Auto Workers, said Walz was one of his top picks for the Democratic ticket (alongside Kentucky governor Andy Beshear, who was also under consideration); Walz had joined striking auto workers on the picket line last fall.
Senator Bernie Sanders expressed his support for Walz in a recent interview with Minnesota Public Radio, when he was in Minnesota campaigning for Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. “I think you have an excellent governor who understands the needs of working families,” Sanders said. “So I hope very much that the vice president selects a running mate who will speak up and take on powerful corporate interests, and I think Tim Walz is somebody who could do that.” (Sanders echoed that sentiment today in a post on X.)
Following today’s official announcement, other labor leaders and advocates have also rallied around Walz. In a statement, AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler said Walz was not only “an ally to the labor movement, but also our union brother with a deep commitment to a pro-worker agenda.” Sara Nelson, the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said Harris’s decision to put Walz on the ticket reflected that she was “in touch with the country and what we need to win.”
Perhaps most crucially—given Walz’s former life as an educator—teachers’ unions have shown enthusiastic support for him, as well. “Gov. Walz is known as the “Education Governor” because he has been an unwavering champion for public school students and educators, and an ally for working families and unions,” Becky Pringle, the president of the National Education Association, said in a statement. “He has a track record of getting things done to make people’s lives better.”
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