Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate for the 2024 election, according to reports from multiple news outlets.
Harris and Walz will campaign in seven battleground states this week, beginning in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening. The pair will hold additional events planned in Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada.
Walz is a former high school teacher and football coach, Army officer and member of the U.S. House. He was elected as the state’s top executive in 2018 and again in 2022.
Walz, 60, is a strong supporter of abortion rights; called to end the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” related to LGBTQ+ people serving in the military in a speech delivered several years prior to its repeal; and has advocated to legalize recreational marijuana.
On July 21, President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Harris to replace him on the ticket. Democratic delegates formally voted to nominate Harris in a virtual roll call before the in-person Democratic National Convention, set to take place from August 19-22 in Chicago.
Shortly after Biden stepped down, observers began speculating as to who Harris would choose as her running mate. Many of the names floated as contenders were White men, most of them governors.
They included Walz, Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois, Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. There was also a woman among them, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. Most of them endorsed Harris within hours of Biden’s announcement of his decision to withdraw.
Harris interviewed Kelly, Walz and Shapiro in person at the Naval Observatory on August 4. A team at the law firm Covington & Burling led by former Attorney General Eric Holder coordinated the vetting process.
After Biden dropped out, the Democratic Party apparatus quickly coalesced around Harris, with nearly 200 Democratic elected officials and major advocacy groups endorsing her in the hours after Biden dropped out. Harris raised $81 million in the first 24 hours after she launched her run, the campaign said.
It’s unclear whether Walz will face Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance in a televised debate. Before Biden dropped out, Harris had accepted CBS News’ invitation to participate in a vice presidential debate in July or August.
Brian Hughes, a senior Trump campaign adviser, responded at the time: “We don’t know who the Democrat nominee for vice president is going to be, so we can’t lock in a date before their convention. To do so would be unfair to Gavin Newsom, JB Pritzker, Gretchen Whitmer, or whoever Kamala Harris picks as her running mate,” in a July 17 statement.
Minnesota last supported a Republican presidential candidate in 1972, when the state backed Richard Nixon for a second term. Even still, it was one of the states Democrats were worried about potentially losing this year, given polling after the first presidential debate before Biden dropped out of the race.
In the 2022 midterms, Minnesota Democrats won a trifecta in the state legislature, paving the way for Democrats to pass a slew of progressive bills, including those expanding abortion rights. Walz also serves as chair of the Democratic Governors Association, giving him a national platform to advocate for governors and tout his state’s accomplishments.
