Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate for the 2024 election. Of those who made it onto Harris’ short list, Walz seems like the sharpest choice. Walz possesses the sensibilities and accomplishments of an outspoken economic populist. It’s not only good for America when Democrats elevate economic populists to leadership positions, but it’s also an effective way to counteract the siren call of right-wing populism.
Walz’s recent legislative record as governor illustrates serious ambition for sweeping social policies designed to help ordinary Americans achieve economic freedom. In 2022 — the beginning of Walz’s second term — Democrats won a governing trifecta in Minnesota. They have used that rare opportunity to pass a remarkable list of bills based on the belief that the government is meant to serve the people. Those bills include universal free meals for schoolchildren; paid family and medical leave; free tuition to Minnesota’s public colleges for residents whose families earn less than $80,000 annually; and the biggest child tax credit in the nation. On top of this, Walz, with his signature, also enshrined the right to abortion and other reproductive health care into Minnesota law, legalized recreational marijuana, and required the state to generate all of its electricity from carbon-free sources by 2040. Organized labor unions have also found much to like about Walz and his record of support for workers and unions as governor.
Where Walz’s populism really shines is through, well, vibes.
Walz has not always been as progressive as that laundry list of policies might suggest. He made it to the governor’s mansion in 2018 in part by positioning himself as a moderate and by prevailing in the Democratic primaries over a more progressive candidate. As journalist David Perry noted for MSNBC, a lot of the recent accomplishments owe to the state’s unusual blue trifecta and effective Democratic leaders in the state House and Senate. Still, Walz deserves credit for signing those bills into law. He rightly noted in 2023 that “you win elections to burn political capital and improve lives.”
Before he became governor, Walz represented a rural Minnesota district in Congress and voted the way one might expect from a Democrat in red territory. He was in favor of voting for stricter screening of refugees, he took standard Democratic establishment positions on Israel policy, and once had an A rating from the Nation Rifle Association. “Walz is someone who hasn’t forged a career as a progressive or run on the left, but acts comfortable being in coalition with progressives — incl. often backing their proposals & signing them into law,” Daniel Nichanian, editor-in-chief of Bolts magazine, wrote on X.
Walz’s earlier positions don’t negate his later ones. Rather, Walz demonstrates sensitivity to his constituencies and an eagerness to get things done — and clearly has some progressive instincts when opportunities present themselves.
Where Walz’s populism really shines is through, well, vibes. He grew up in rural Nebraska and likes hunting and fishing. He served in the Army National Guard for decades. He is a former social studies teacher and football coach who helped lead his team to its first state championship. He attended state schools for teaching degrees, and he is the first person on a Democratic presidential ticket since 1976 not to have attended law school. While he’s no socialist, he speaks with tremendous pride about public institutions. I was struck by how Walz recently panned Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance and his allies’ animosity toward public education in an interview with The New York Times: “These guys, they talk about how evil the public schools are. For many of us, public schools were everything. That was our path. That’s the great American contribution.”
While many prominent politicians seek desperately to come across as ordinary people who understand life outside elite professional urban bubbles, Walz’s life and career provide him with that knowledge organically. And Walz exudes that experience through a wholesome, happy warrior persona that has made him into a social media darling overnight.
Walz’s masterstroke in the veepstakes was coining “weird” as an attack against former President Donald Trump and his extremist allies during MSNBC appearances. It has proven to be a strangely sticky thorn in the side of the GOP and serves as a rhetorical tool for denying MAGA of its claims to speak on behalf of the people. It’s been useful in dispelling the MAGA mythos and pointing out how unpopular and divisive right-wing populist doctrine is despite the everyman veneer. “Who’s asking for this crazy stuff? Who’s asking to raise the price of insulin? Who’s asking to get rid of birth control? … Who’s sitting in a bar in Racine, Wisconsin, saying, ‘You know what we really need? We need to ban “Animal Farm.”’ Nobody is!” Walz told MSNBC in July.
As I’ve written before, political scientists have found that vice presidents rarely change the outcome of an election. But they’re significant because they’re the first major clue about how a presidential candidate seeks to govern. In this case, Harris has signaled that she’s interested in populism that can excite progressives and help deliver incisive messaging that undercuts the right’s claim to speak on behalf of the people. Those are promising instincts that I hope to see more of.
But perhaps the most consequential effect of this choice is that vice presidential candidates often become viable presidential candidates. There’s a very decent chance that Walz becomes a top-tier name in the party as a future presidential candidate, especially if Harris and Walz win and he handles his policy portfolio well. His emergence signals that the Democratic Party has a growing appetite for bold populism. That is in and of itself a healthy development, regardless of what happens in November.