Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, once said he never expected a former high school geography teacher would make it so far in politics. He couldn’t have imagined that he would some day run for vice president.
That changed Tuesday when the 60-year-old was chosen by Vice President Kamala Harris to be her running mate on the Democratic presidential ticket. Walz, who has gained a reputation as an energetic and plain-spoken champion of Harris’ surprise candidacy, emerged late in a highly compressed vetting process — edging out Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona.
Here — culled from articles about his 20-year career in politics — is a look at how Walz, a former non-commissioned officer in the Army National Guard, went from being the rare Democrat representing a conservative and rural district in Congress to becoming the progressive governor in his adopted state. It offers a glimpse of the person he might be if he becomes America’s next vice president.
- Walz was born in West Point, a Nebraska town of just 3,500 people. But he was raised in an even smaller town called Butte.
2. Walz graduated from Butte High School in 1982. “I come from a town of 400 — 24 kids in a class, 12 cousins, farming, those types of things.”
Join our WhatsApp Channel for more news
3. Walz credits his rural upbringing for his values: “A town that small had services like that and had a public school with a government teacher that inspired me to be sitting where I’m at today. Those are real stories in small towns.”
4. Walz enlisted in the Army National Guard when he was 17.
5. In his state Capitol office, Walz displays hundreds of “challenge” coins that he’s traded and collected for years around the world.
6. Walz’s father, a school administrator, died of lung cancer when Walz was 19. Walz said this moment fueled his views on health care access: “The last week of my dad’s life cost my mom a decade of going back to work to pay off hospital debt.”
7. Walz graduated with a social science degree from Chadron State College in 1989. He earned a Master of Science in educational leadership from Minnesota State University, Mankato in 2001.
8. He spent a year teaching in China after college before returning full time to the Army. He traveled to China with one of the first government-sanctioned groups of American educators to teach in Chinese high schools.
9. He still speaks Mandarin.
10. He taught on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. “I tell folks that managing a high-school lunchroom for years trained me for the craziness that can overtake Washington, D.C.”
11. He rose to the rank of command sergeant major before retiring from the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion in 2005. He served for a total of 24 years.
12. Walz met his future wife, Gwen Whipple, a native Minnesotan, as they were both high school teachers in temporary classrooms. The first lady said she was irked by his loud voice disrupting her classroom.
13. The two eventually moved to Mankato, Minnesota, where they both worked at Mankato West High School. “Gwen loved living in southern Minnesota. We jumped at the chance to move to Mankato and start our lives together.”
14. Walz taught geography and coached high school football. “I don’t know if every high school geography teacher expects to be in this position at some point.”
15. He was the faculty adviser for the school’s first gay-straight alliance chapter in 1999.
16. Walz, 60, has drawn criticism for appearing older than his age. Walz responded to this on X, saying that it’s because he “supervised the lunchroom for 20 years. You do not leave that job with a full head of hair. Trust me.”
17. He has two children, Hope and Gus. Hope recently graduated from college in Montana, and Gus is in public high school in St. Paul.
18. Both children were conceived through IVF and fertility treatments: “There’s a reason we named [our daughter] Hope.”
19. Walz’s first job in politics was as a member of former Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. The campaign hired him to be campaign’s county coordinator as well as a district coordinator of Vets for Kerry.
20. He said he was inspired to join Kerry’s campaign after he took a group of high school students to a George W. Bush campaign rally and security interrogated one of his students because he had a Kerry sticker on his wallet.
21. Walz was first elected to Congress in 2006, in one of the biggest House upsets of the year. The district, home to both the Mayo Clinic and the Hormel meatpacking firm, had twice voted for George W. Bush.
22. He was the highest-ranking enlisted soldier ever to serve in the U.S. House and only the fourth Democrat/Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party member to represent his district.
23. Walz defeated incumbent Republican Rep. Gil Gutknecht despite being outspent by close to a half-million dollar margin.
24. Walz won re-election five times in southern Minnesota’s mostly rural, conservative 1st District, serving in the House for 12 years.
25. When he arrived in the House, Walz was elected to share the freshman class presidency with Rep. Paul Hodes of New Hampshire.
26. He was named the ranking member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs in 2017. He focused on issues such as veterans’ mental health, suicide and pain management. He also called for funding to research medical cannabis treatment for veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain.
27. More than half of the bills Walz co-sponsored between 2015-2017 were introduced by non-Democrats.
28. Walz once earned an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association and the group’s endorsement. In 2016, Guns & Ammo magazine included him on its list of top 20 politicians for gun owners.
29. He later denounced the NRA and supported gun-control measures, such as an assault weapons ban. During his first campaign for governor in 2018, the NRA completely downgraded his rating. “I had an A rating from the NRA. Now I get straight F’s. And I sleep just fine.”
30. Shortly after the deadly Las Vegas shooting in 2017, which killed 59 people, he donated campaign contributions from the NRA to a nonprofit that supported the family of military members who died or were severely wounded while serving.
31. Walz is an avid hunter and scoffed at JD Vance for talking about guns when “I guarantee you he can’t shoot pheasants like I can.”
32. In 2019, Walz left the House to run for governor of Minnesota. He beat Republican Jeff Johnson by more than 11 points.
33. Walz frequently defends his policies, such as the universal school meals bill signed into Minnesota law earlier this year, as common sense: “What a monster! Kids are eating and having full bellies so they can go learn and women are making their own healthcare decisions,” Walz said jokingly.
34. Violence erupted after police killed George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020, an incident that led to protests against racism and police brutality across the nation. Republican lawmakers issued a report later in the year, criticizing Walz’ administration for not intervening quickly enough to prevent looting and arson. “I certainly believe our administration … whether it be the National Guard, the State Patrol or the DNR [Department of Natural Resources], our front line folks responded in a noble and heroic manner. They saved lives,” Walz said. “A one-sided report coming out right before an election isn’t as helpful. But if there is helpful advice in there, I’ll certainly take it.”
35. In recent weeks, Walz is credited for popularizing the Democratic Party’s latest line of attack against the Republican ticket, when he called Trump and Vance “these really weird people.”
36. He told POLITICO in 2023: “When we’re running against the generic Republican, our races are always really close, but there’s no such thing [as a generic Republican]. These guys are weird. Once they start running, their weirdness shows up, and especially with the nominee on the other side. I don’t think it’s that surprising.”
37. Walz told The New York Times that his comments about weirdness are about Trump and Vance, not Republicans generally: “And ‘weird’ is specific to him. I’m certainly not talking about Republicans. I’m not talking about the people who are at those rallies. I’m hearing this from my Republican friends, because the people at those rallies, they’re the ones that can most benefit from the message we’re delivering.”
38. Last year, Barack Obama praised Walz when the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party gained control of the governor’s mansion, the state house, and the state senate.
39. Walz first met his lieutenant governor, Peggy Flanagan, when he attended Wellstone Action, founded after the 2002 death of Sen. Paul Wellstone to train progressive organizers, activists and candidates. “I showed up and had a fantastic young trainer who turned out to be Peggy Flanagan. That’s when we started our friendship.”
40. After Minnesota legalized recreational marijuana last year, Walz appointed a hemp shop owner to be the state’s top cannabis regulator. The next day, cannabis entrepreneur Erin DuPree stepped down from the role after the Star Tribune reported she had sold illegal products at her hemp shop and had federal tax liens and judgments against her. Minnesota’s nonpartisan government watchdog the Office of the Legislative Auditor later found the governor’s office missed some standard background check steps before the appointment of DuPree.
41. In December 2023, Walz was tapped to chair the Democratic Governors Association, responsible for defending and growing the party’s share of chief executives in the states. “I’m a firm believer now that governors do make a difference. We saw it in Minnesota, we saw it in Michigan, we saw it in Colorado. We see these trifecta states improving folks’ lives.”
42. His beverage of choice is Diet Mountain Dew. He got a DWI in Nebraska in 1995 before he quit drinking.
43. Walz is a runner, who has participated in multiple competitions in Minnesota’s Twin Cities: “I’ve found that even before the most stressful events, if I’ve gone for a run, I’m calmer and more collected.”
44. He likes to tinker on his vintage blue International Scout, a four-wheel-drive vehicle that International Harvester stopped producing in 1980.
45. He has custom license plates that read, “ONE MN,” his campaign slogan for his gubernatorial bid.
46. Walz promised his son Gus a dog if he won THE governorship in 2019. When the election was called, Gus exclaimed, “I get a dog!” Walz kept his promise by adopting Scout, a black lab mix, later in the year.
47. Walz and Scout make daily morning visits to an off-leash Twin Cities dog park.
48. Walz signed a bill last May expanding voting rights for an estimated 55,000 formerly incarcerated residents.
49. Walz has met with the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States to sign a letter of understanding that creates an agricultural partnership between Minnesota and a northern region in Ukraine called Chernihiv. “Once we drive the Russians out, we will have some cooperation,” Walz said. “It’s a really important showing of friendship and a real important showing of ties.”
50. In 2023, Walz signed an executive order protecting access to gender-affirming care. “As states across the country move to ban access to gender-affirming care, we want LGBTQ Minnesotans to know they will continue to be safe, protected, and welcome in Minnesota,” said Walz.
51. His tater tot hot dish — the unofficial dish of Minnesota — is three time champion of the Minnesota Congressional Delegation Hot Dish Off. He won in 2013, 2014 and 2016.
52. He is a self-proclaimed sci-fi fantasy guy when it comes to books. “I just finished reading the four-book series Mortal Engines. I read a lot of these young adult ones, because I do it with my kids. I was reading that one with Gus,” he said in 2019. “And then I just finished one I would not suggest reading because it is terrifying: Command and Control. It traces the history of America’s nuclear arsenal.”
53. His favorite song by Bob Dylan, one of Minnesota’s most famous celebrities, is “Forever Young,” which contains a “timeless message from a dad to his son,” according to Walz.
54. He enjoys the all-you-can-drink milk booth at the Minnesota State Fair — so much so that he volunteered at the booth in 2022.
55. Walz is a self-described optimist, but when it comes to government he tries to plan for the worst. “I think people should have an expectation of a forward leaning, anticipatory government,” he said as he took office in 2019. “A lot of things people write off as accidents or chance is really just poor planning and anticipation.”
