Somewhere, JD Vance is hiding in a couch now that Kamala Harris has announced her running mate is Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Walz emerged as the frontrunner thanks to his affable personality and strong record. A Democratic gun owner with an F rating from the NRA, Walz has a long history of defying expectations in his state.
Before he entered public office, Walz was a high school geography teacher in Mankato, Minnesota. He also served in the National Guard for 24 years.
He first ran for office in 2006 and kept his House seat until he won his bid for Governor in 2018. Walz was re-elected in 2022, and his progressive leadership has brought his state universal school meals, legalized marijuana, abortion protections, and stricter gun control measures.
A spry 60 years old, Walz is just a year older than Vice President Harris, yet has a similar energy, experience, and integrity that now-President Joe Biden brought to the ticket when he was Barack Obama's running mate.
Walz has been an excellent surrogate for the Biden-Harris administration, but the Democratic Party at large fully embraced him as a potential VP when he started the trend of calling Donald Trump and his remaining supporters "weird."
Walz explained in a TV interview why he had started calling Trump "weird." He said that Trump’s policies would put women’s lives on the line, that he’s a threat to constitutional values, and he’s holding unhinged rallies “talking about Hannibal Lecter and shocking sharks and just whatever crazy thing pops into his mind”.
VP Harris and soon-to-be-VP Walz will kick off their official campaign tonight in Philadelphia and then take their new act on the road, with rallies in several battleground states.
Democrats were exuberantly tweeting their approval of the VP's VP pick, even though we were ready to embrace her choice no matter who he was.