Facts About Tim Walz: Teacher, Veteran and Harris’s VP PickSimon J. Levien, Maggie Astor
19 Facts About Tim Walz, Harris’s Pick for Vice PresidentMr. Walz, the governor of Minnesota, worked as a high school social studies teacher and football coach, served in the Army National Guard and chooses Diet Mountain Dew over alcohol.
Until recently, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota was a virtual unknown outside of the Midwest, even among Democrats. But his stock rose fast in the days after President Biden withdrew from the race, clearing a path for Ms. Harris to replace him and pick Mr. Walz as her No. 2.
Here’s a closer look at the Democrats’ new choice for vice president.
1.
He is a (very recent) social media darling. Mr. Walz has enjoyed a groundswell of support online from users commenting on his Midwestern “dad vibes” and appealing ordinariness.
2.
He started the whole “weird” thing. It was Mr. Walz who labeled former President Donald J. Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, “weird” on cable television just a couple of weeks ago. The description soon became a Democratic talking point.
3.
He named a highway after Prince and signed the bill in purple ink. “I think we can lay to rest that this is the coolest bill signing we’ll ever do,”
he said as he put his name on legislation declaring a stretch of Highway 5 the “Prince Rogers Nelson Memorial Highway” after the musician who had lived in Minnesota.
4.
He reminds you of your high school history teacher for a reason. Mr. Walz taught high school social studies and geography — first in Alliance, Neb., and then in Mankato, Minn. — before entering politics.
5.
He taught in China in 1989 and speaks some Mandarin. He went to China for a year after graduating from college and taught English there through a program affiliated with Harvard University.
6.
He is a decorated veteran. Mr. Walz enlisted in the Army National Guard as a teenager and retired 24 years later in 2005, having served primarily in responses to natural disasters. He received honors including the Army Commendation Medal for heroism or meritorious service.
7.
He was a rare breed in Congress: a Democrat from the rural Midwest. For more than a decade, Mr. Walz represented Minnesota’s First District, in the southern part of the state. He was the top Democrat on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, supported funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, voted for the Affordable Care Act and voted against restricting federal funding for abortion.
8.
He is a Nebraskan by birth. He was born in West Point, Neb., grew up in Valentine, Neb., attended high school in Butte, Neb., and graduated from Chadron State College before moving to earn a master’s degree in educational leadership from Minnesota State University, Mankato.
9.
He got involved in politics after being barred from a George W. Bush rally. In 2004, when he was still a teacher, he accompanied students to the rally and objected when,
in his telling, they were denied entrance for having volunteered for Democrats.
10.
The woman who trained him to run for office is now his lieutenant governor. Mr. Walz attended Camp Wellstone, a Democratic political training camp named after former Senator Paul Wellstone, before ousting a Republican incumbent to win his House seat in 2006. Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan
was a trainer there.
11.
He was an early supporter of gay rights. At Mankato West High School in Minnesota in the 1990s, he sponsored a gay-straight alliance and
has said it was important at that time for the sponsor to be “the football coach, who was the soldier and was straight and was married.” When he won his House seat in 2006 in a conservative district, he ran on support for same-sex marriage.