Democratic nominee Kamala Harris announced Tuesday that she has picked Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in the 2024 presidential election.
Walz has been the Governor of Minnesota since 2019. He was re-elected in 2022.
Before winning the governorship, he served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives representing a largely rural district in southern Minnesota.
In the days leading up to Harris’ announcement, the prospect of her running with the Minnesota governor was particularly promoted by the left-wing of the Democratic Party.
Socialists and progressives widely viewed Walz as especially preferable to fellow finalist Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who they deemed as more “moderate.”
Over the weekend far left Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, said he was “very impressed” by Walz and called on Harris to select him.
“I hope very much that the vice president elects a running mate who will speak up and take on powerful corporate interests,” Sanders stated. “And I think Tim Walz is somebody who could do that.”
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Sanders, a self-identified “democratic socialist,” is currently a registered independent who is a member of the Senate Democratic Caucus. He notably ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in both 2016 and 2020.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-WA, the chairwoman of the left-wing Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), has also stated that she preferred Walz over Harris’ other possible choices.
“Hard agree!” she wrote on X, in reply to a post detailing Sanders’ endorsement of Walz.
“I want somebody who’s really strongly pro-labor and understands labor, because this is a big part of the working-class agenda and making sure that we win working-class vote,” Jayapal said days before Harris’ announcement.
Walz seemed to bolster the view that he was the most left-wing choice among Harris’ reported Vice Presidential shortlist during his appearance on the controversial Zoom call “White Dudes for Harris” last week.
“Don’t ever shy away from our progressive values,” Walz said on the call. “One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness. Just do the damn work.”
Tim Walz has a long history of subjecting minor children to the LGBTQ movement dating back to his time as a public school teacher.
The Hill noted, “In 1999, Walz, then a 35-year-old social studies teacher at Mankato West High School, advised the school’s first gay-straight alliance (GSA).”
In March 2023, Walz issued an executive order that critics say “shielded” the subjection of minors to deeply controversial life-changing “transgender” procedures in the state.
“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,” the governor said at the time. “In Minnesota, you will not be punished for seeking or providing medical care.”
Walz’s far-left Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan is known for being an even more strident supporter of subjecting children to the “transgender” movement.
Flanagan garnered much criticism when she said in March 2023:
Gender affirming health care is safe, scientifically proven, and lifesaving. When our friends and neighbors tell us that this care will help them feel safer, happier, and more themselves, it is our job to listen and to believe them.
In Minnesota, Lieutenant Governors are selected by Governors. Walz picked Flanagan as his running mate when he successfully ran for governor in 2018.
If the Harris/Walz ticket wins the November Presidential Election, Flanagan will become the next Governor of Minnesota.
While Walz joins almost all Democrats in supporting a pro-abortion stance, his record as governor shows a willingness to push even further on the issue than many members of his own party.
The Daily Signal’s Elizabeth Mitchell reported that in “January 2023, Walz signed into law Minnesota legislation that includes no limitations on when a woman may end the life of her unborn baby.”
In addition to this law known as the “Protect Reproductive Options Act,” Walz two months later signed the “Reproductive Freedom Defense Act,” which critics have called a pro-abortion “shield law.”
The Minnesota Reformer reported in March 2023 that the law “aims to block other states’ abortion restrictions from reaching into Minnesota’s borders by prohibiting state courts, law enforcement and health care providers from cooperating with authorities outside the state.”
Like most Democratic governors who presided over the COVID outbreak, Walz was a steadfast supporter of restrictions which critics asserted violated First Amendment rights to the freedoms of religion and assembly.
Walz in 2020 issued an executive order that banned Masses and church services with more than ten people – effectively causing houses of worship across the state to shutter.
Despite this, the same executive order allowed retail stores “to operate at 50 percent capacity.”
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty wrote in a May 2020 press release: “Governor Walz’s latest reopening order allows the Mall of America to open its doors to those seeking retail therapy but disallows churches from providing spiritual healing to their congregations.”
Walz’s restrictions even extended to in-home family holiday gatherings.
“[Four] years ago [Walz] told us not to go to Thanksgiving dinner with our families at all,” Minnesota resident Andy Brehm pointed out on X in June. “And created a hotline so your neighbor could tattletale on you to the government if you did.”
In July 2020, Walz issued an executive order instituting an indoor mask mandate across Minnesota.
The following year, Walz announced that he would be mandating employees of Minnesota state government agencies to take the COVID shot.
While many of Walz’s COVID restrictions were in place, Minnesota was the epicenter of the summer 2020 riots which swept the nation following the death of George Floyd.
“It was [Walz] who went AWOL during the 2020 riots in Minneapolis, allowing a police precinct to burn down,” wrote Minnesota resident and former sports reporter Michele Tafoya on X last week.
“Those of us who live in Minnesota were wondering where the hell the leadership was,” Tafoya added. “It was NOT in the form of [Walz].”
In recent weeks, Walz has received attention for appearing to coin a talking point that has since been repeatedly used by the Harris campaign and its surrogates to demean political opponents – particularly those who support socially conservative policies.
“These are weird people on the other side,” Walz said during an MSNBC interview last month, prompting the program’s hostess to laugh.
“They want to take books away,” he said, referring to another widely scrutinized Democratic talking point. “They want to be in your exam room.”
“These are weird ideas,” Walz repeated. “Listen to them speak. Listen to how they talk about things.”
Even before the MSNBC interview, Walz had been known to use the word “weird” to refer to Americans with whom he disagrees.
Republican Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance – who has particularly been at the forefront of these attacks – said on Saturday that it is in fact Harris, Walz, and the Democrats who have “weird” policies.
“We think it’s weird that Democrats want to put sexually explicit books in toddlers’ libraries,” Vance stated. “We think it’s weird that the far left wants to allow biological males to beat the living crap out of women.”
LifeNews Note: Joshua Mercer writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.
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