WASHINGTON (CN) — Vice President Kamala Harris added Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to the 2024 presidential ticket Tuesday.
Harris, who last month replaced President Joe Biden as Democrats’ presumptive nominee to challenge former President Donald Trump in November, confirmed in a post on X that she had chosen Walz as her running mate.
"As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he's delivered for working families like his," she wrote.
The two are set to attend a campaign rally in Philadelphia later Tuesday.
Walz in recent days emerged as a top contender to join the vice president’s ticket. The former teacher and congressman edged out Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro for the job.
Though he initially demurred from calling on Biden to step aside from the presidential race, Walz has in recent weeks become an ardent defender of Harris’s campaign, taking shots at Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance. The Minnesota governor was one of the first to refer to the duo as “weird guys,” an off-the-cuff remark which has quickly become a clarion call among Democrats looking to call attention to the Republicans’ personalities and platform.
Walz also brings a Midwestern working-class background, which serves as a foil to Harris’ history as a California prosecutor. A 24-year veteran of the Army National Guard, he worked as a high school geography teacher and football coach before running a successful campaign in 2006 to represent Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District in the House.
As a lawmaker, Walz was a reliable Democratic vote on most issues, but diverged from the party on other topics such as gun rights and agriculture. As a congressman, he backed legislation allowing people to carry guns in national parks and signed onto an amicus brief for the Supreme Court case District of Columbia v. Heller — actions that in 2010 earned him an ‘A’ rating from the National Rifle Association.
But as governor of Minnesota, Walz has fully embraced Democratic values. Under his leadership, the North Star State codified abortion rights following the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling striking down the constitutional right to an abortion. He also signed bills banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ people and shielding gender-affirming care in Minnesota.
And Walz in 2018 denounced the NRA, later signing a gun control law which included universal background checks and red-flag laws for firearms purchases. The gun rights organization has rescinded its endorsement of the governor.
Congressional Democrats sounded off on social media Tuesday to celebrate Walz’s ascent.
“It’s Walz, baby, let’s go!” cheered New York Representative Jamaal Bowman — a former middle school principal — in a video message posted to X. “High school teachers stand up! Educators stand up! Tim Walz in the building!”
Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar congratulated her state’s governor, pointing to his record of supporting universal school meals, paid sick leave, marijuana legalization and other issues.
“Bringing Minnesota nice to the ticket,” she quipped.
Republicans were also quick to pile on Walz, seizing on his leadership during riots in Minnesota following the 2020 police killing of George Floyd.
“Walz was a failed member of Congress, is a failed governor who supported Defund the Police BLM that torched cities to the ground,” wrote New York Representative Elise Stefanik, chair of the House Republican Caucus. She claimed that the Harris-Walz pairing was “the most radical far left-wing ticket in history.”
Texas Representative Ronny Jackson called the Minnesota governor a “radical.”
“Don’t forget how he let RIOTERS and LOOTERS DESTROY Minnesota during the ‘summer of love,’” Trump’s former White House physician wrote on X.
Walz joins the presidential ticket despite predictions from pundits and politicos that Harris was likely to tap Shapiro or another prominent Democratic figure as her running mate. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg were all floated as possible vice-presidential candidates.
Shapiro, until recently considered by some to be the favorite to join the Democratic ticket, had come under scrutiny for his staunch support of Israel’s war in Gaza and his criticism of pro-Palestine protests on university campuses in Pennsylvania and across the country.
The Pennsylvania governor is expected to speak at Harris’ rally at Philadelphia’s Temple University Tuesday afternoon.
Harris and Walz, meanwhile, will be formally anointed as the Democratic challengers to Trump and Vance at the Democratic National Convention to be held in Chicago later this month.
Follow @BenjaminSWeiss
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