The Internet Loves Tim Walz. But Who Is He & What Does He Stand For?

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for President, and her newly named running mate, Tim Walz, held their first rally together in Philadelphia on August 6, just hours after she announced him as her VP. Getting Walz in front of voters immediately after the announcement and showcasing the chemistry between the pair was of course strategic, especially with only three months left until the election.

After the rally — during which Walz thanked Harris for “bringing back the joy” — Harris and Walz headed on a swing state campaign tour of Michigan and Wisconsin. These are crucial battleground states, to be sure, but also a playbook publicity tour for the VP candidate as the Democrats attempt to make up ground. So who exactly is the man who may be the next vice president of the United States of America other than the current king of memes?

Walz, a former high school teacher and football coach, veteran, and gun owner, is widely considered to be a choice meant to bring in moderate, undecided, and independent voters who have voted for Republican challenger Donald Trump in the past. The decision ended two weeks of speculation on who Harris would ultimately pick, after President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the election on July 21, with other top contenders being Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly.

“There was a lot of real trepidation and dare I say, fear, in the Democratic Party after the first debate between President Biden and former President Trump,” says Dr. Imani M. Cheers, associate professor of digital storytelling in the school of media and public affairs at George Washington University. “We’ve seen the energy over the past two weeks.”

It’s easy to roll your eyes at this pick (a white dude from the Midwest to court voters who might be made uncomfortable by the idea of the first Black woman president) but so far there are some reasons to feel hopeful about Walz. 

He’s a smart choice for the Harris campaign, with seemingly broad appeal for both moderates who will be soothed by his Midwestern “aw shucks” demeanor and progressives who will be impressed by his political record. In television appearances and campaign videos (like this one where he teases his teenage daughter for being a vegetarian), he comes across as an unassuming guy, an all-American dad who might offer to cut your lawn for you since he already has the mower out. Before entering politics, Walz spent 24 years in the Army National Guard, giving him the distinction of being the vice-presidential pick with the longest military record. In 2006, Walz won a seat in Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District and served until 2018, when he was elected governor.

Under Walz’s tenure, Minnesota signed into law a free college tuition program for families making under $80,000 a year. As governor, Walz signed a bill to provide free breakfasts and lunches to public school students. (ICYMI, he also loves a good soundbite: In a CNN appearance on July 28, Walz joked that he would be targeted for the decision. “What a monster! Kids are eating and having full bellies so they can go learn,” he said. “Look, they’re going to label whatever they’re going to label.” He also coined calling the Republicans “weird,” a message that has taken on a life of its own.)

He enshrined the right to abortion into Minnesota law with a bill meant to hold the protections regardless of future court decisions. With the signing, Minnesota became the first state to codify abortion protections after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Walz also established the Minnesota Office of Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls, which is the first of its kind in the country. Black women are three times more likely to be murdered than white women in Minnesota.

Nourbese Flint, the president of the abortion advocacy justice group All* In Action Fund, said the Harris-Walz ticket has an opportunity to step up for Black voters when it comes to reproductive rights. “We know that the issue of abortion access is deeply important to Black voters,” she told Refinery29 in a statement. “Black voters are a significant voting bloc for the Democratic Party, and must not be taken for granted. Any candidate vying for our vote must show us the specific action they will take to protect our rights, freedoms, families, and communities.”

Harris and Walz know they need to capitalize on the youth vote — eight million Gen Z aged into the voting demographic in the past four years — which is why we’ve seen heavy leaning on Brat green, memes, and celeb endorsements. “We know that young people are the margin of victory for a lot of candidates,” says Marianna Pecora, the communications director for Voters of Tomorrow, a youth-focused voting organization, speaking specifically about swing states such as Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. “Tim Walz has been the vice presidential candidate for a grand total of 24 hours. But he's done so much for young Minnesotans, and he's always made it very clear that young people are at the top of his list of priorities.”

Cheers, the professor from George Washington University, sees reproductive rights and domestic and international politics as the biggest issues for Gen Z voters. According to a Pew Research Center survey from April 2024, 33% of young people say their “sympathies lie either entirely or mostly with the Palestinian people,” and many Gen Z disapprove of Biden’s policies surrounding the Israel-Hamas war. To date, Harris has called for a ceasefire while Walz has remained mostly silent on the conflict. “I think that’s going to be that really key point. If they can come in considerably more moderate [on the Israel-Hamas conflict] than their predecessors, I think they have a chance of winning,” says Cheers. Refinery29 reached out to Walz for comment.

Walz will also have to answer to criticism that calling in the Minnesota National Guard after Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd on May 25, 2020, potentially incited more violence against protestors, and separate criticism from the right that he called the National Guard in too late. Refinery29 reached out to Walz for comment. Cheers notes: “[Republican critics] can pinpoint on, ‘you should have brought the National Guard out 48 or 24 hours earlier.’ We can all look back with hindsight and say, ‘I could have done XYZ differently’, but the larger conversation I hope we have is that we need serious police reform in this country...The larger issue is about the way African-Americans in the United States are disproportionately targeted and murdered at the hands of police.”

So what’s next? It’s early days of the Harris/Walz strategy, but memes, soundbites, and a Beyoncé signoff (sources told CNN Harris got the approval from the singer’s reps to use “Freedom” in her presidential campaign) only go so far. Harris and Walz face the challenge of proving themselves to an electorate disenchanted by politics and the electoral system.

They’ll have to come up with key, actionable strategies on many issues — from how they’ll expand abortion access in a post-Roe v. Wade America to addressing rents that have risen faster than wages to record-shattering heat and climate change. And they only have a few months to earn every vote in an election that’s widely forecasted to be a toss-up. 

“I think it’s really important for them to focus on battleground states, but the reality is that you can’t take any voting bloc in any state for granted,” says Cheers. “The next 90 days are going to be critical and exhausting for both candidates and their teams as they try to focus and rally and not only try to garner their base but pay attention to some of these independent and swing voters who haven’t made up their mind yet.”

Walz, for one, seems optimistic. “How often in 100 days do you get to change the trajectory of the world? How often in 100 days do you get to do something that’s going to impact generations to come?” he said at a “White Dudes for Harris” fundraiser before he was announced as VP. He added: “And how often in the world do you make that bastard wake up afterwards and know that a Black woman kicked his a**, sent him on the road?”