Walz went from a moderate House member to a progressive governor. But some of his appeal is probably about vibes, too.
Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Hours after Vice President Kamala Harris selected Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez went on Instagram Live.
The New York congresswoman, a progressive stalwart who identifies as a Democratic socialist, marveled at the fact that both she and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia — the Democrat turned independent who's long frustrated progressive priorities — were on the same page about the Minnesota governor.
"That really is no small feat. It's really kind of nuts," Ocasio-Cortez said. "I am trying to think about the last time Sen. Manchin and I, respectfully, were on the same side of an issue."
Manchin, for his part, said in a statement that Walz would "bring normality back to the most chaotic political environment that most of us have ever seen."
By one measure, Walz has wider appeal among the Democratic Party's various factions than Harris: Manchin has declined to endorse the vice president herself, saying that she's "too far to the left."
The secret to Walz's broad appeal within the Democratic Party may be his dual identity: 12 years as a moderate in the House, then more than five years as a progressive governor.
A former public-school teacher, Walz was elected to Congress during the Democratic wave of 2006, unseating a Republican incumbent in a largely rural, conservative-leaning district.
For most of his time in Congress, he had an A rating from the National Rifle Association. Between 2015 and 2017, he was ranked the seventh-most-bipartisan member of the House, a metric based on cosponsoring bills with lawmakers in the opposite party.
He later blasted the NRA after the Parkland, Florida, shooting in 2018 and donated the money he'd received from the group to charity.
.@Tim_Walz used to be supported by the NRA and took money from them. But after the Parkland shooting his daughter, Hope asked he do all he could to fight gun violence. In response Walz not only denounced the NRA & gave all the money he ever took from them to charity. Since then… pic.twitter.com/6PqzynehxO
— David Hogg ???? (@davidhogg111) July 27, 2024
As governor, he's signed a raft of progressive legislation, including a universal-school-lunch program, a mandate for paid family and medical leave, an expansion of the child tax credit, the legalization of cannabis, and a funding increase for public schools.
Those accomplishments have earned Walz the admiration of progressives, including those in Congress who would like to see those policies enacted at the federal level.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Socialists of America took a victory lap over Walz's selection, saying it had "shown the world that DSA and our allies on the left are a force that cannot be ignored."
That's because many on the left did not want Harris to choose Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who had drawn scrutiny for his support for Israel and his comments comparing some pro-Palestinian protesters to the Ku Klux Klan.
Yet, on policy, Walz isn't all that different from Shapiro. And it's unclear that pro-Palestinian activists' concerns played a role in Harris' selection of Walz. Some reporting has suggested that it had more to do with the Pennsylvania governor's own political ambitions.
It may simply be that Walz's identity — a white man of relatively modest means with a military background who grew up in rural Nebraska — allows everyone to see something different in the new vice-presidential candidate.
If you're Joe Manchin or a Democrat in a swing district, you probably like that Walz isn't from the coasts, is still a hunter, and has conservative family members. If you're a progressive, the Minnesota governor represents a throwback to the Democratic Party's populist roots.
"I think what we are seeing, slowly but surely," Ocasio-Cortez said on Instagram Live, "is a return to the Democratic Party's actual roots of a populist working-class party."
