Election season is incredibly overwhelming for the everyday student. We have tests to study for and chapters to read; some of us have jobs, too. Juggling all these responsibilities is hard enough as is, which doesn’t leave much time to research political candidates. This is a quick breakdown of who the new vice presidential candidate is and what he intends to do for our country.
Who is Tim Walz?
Timothy James Walz is a sixty-year-old politician and Veteran originally from Nebraska, but now lives in Minnesota, where he serves as the 41st Governor. He grew up on a farm in Valentine, Nebraska, with his parents and his three siblings. He graduated high school in 1982 and attended Chadron State College in Nebraska. In January of 1984, his father passed, leaving Walz crushed. After his father’s passing, he moved to Houston, Texas, where he studied East Asian traditions at the University of Houston while serving in the Texas National Guard. He then moved on to Jonesboro, Arkansas, where he furthered his career in the Arkansas National Guard. In 1987, he returned to Chadron State College to finish his education, receiving a bachelor of science in social science. He also continued his duty in the Nebraska National Guard.
In 1989, Walz moved to Guangdong, China, to teach high school at Foshan High School using WorldTeach. When he returned to Nebraska a year later, he continued teaching and added coaching to his repertoire. At this time, he met his wife, Gwen Whipple, and the two moved to Mankato, Minnesota, where Gwen was originally from. The couple worked together at Mankato West High School in 1996. Walz also coached the school’s football team to a winning state championship 1999. The same year, he became the faculty advisor for the school’s first-ever gay-straight Alliance (GSA). On top of all these achievements, the Walzs also ran summer study-abroad trips for high-school students wanting to go to China. Walz also returned to school, getting his master’s of science in education from Minnesota State University in 2002. In 2006, Walz left his teaching career behind and took his first step into the political world.
Political background
In 2006, Walz ran for the House of Representatives seat in Minnesota’s first congressional district. He ran under the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and faced the Republican incumbent Gil Gutknecht. He ran on an anti-Iraq War platform and won his election with 53 percent of the vote. He continued to hold his seat until 2018, which would have been his 7th term, but vacated to run for governor. During his time in Congress, Walz focused on benefits for veterans and active duty military personal benefits, investment in public infrastructure, and creating jobs for Americans. Additionally, during the shutdown in 2013, the Congressman forwent his congressional pay and donated it to food banks in Mankato and Rochester instead.
Governor Walz
Walz ran against Jeff Johnson, the Republican nominee in 2018, and won with 54 percent of the vote. He served until recently when he was selected as Vice President Harris’s running mate. He worked to reform the police of Minnesota after the tragic death of George Floyd in 2020. He also worked to secure reproductive rights for women in his state after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. He also cut funding for crisis pregnancy centers and anti-abortion groups. He fought to reduce Minnesotas’s reliance on non-renewable energy sources by 2040 and preserve shrinking habits and populations of pollinators in the state. He also signed a 2.6 billion dollar infrastructure spending package, creating jobs for many Minnesotans and improving the overall infrastructure of his state.
As Walz has a background in education, it is unsurprising that he increased the state funding for K-12 schools by 2.2 billion dollars and created a free meals program for all Minnesotan students. He also legalized recreational cannabis use in Minnesota in 2023. Walz also issued an executive order that improved the relationship between local agencies and tribal nations. He also reappropriated Upper Sioux land to the Community in September of 2023.
Controversy
Israel-Palestine
Like any other politician, Tim Walz has his own set of controversies. In 2016, Walz voted to condemn the UN Security Council for issuing Resolution 2234, which stated the Israeli settlements in the West Bank violated international law. This act was unsurprising at the time as Walz wrote his master’s thesis on Holocaust education and has always been an outspoken ally of Israel. It is important to note, however, that some scholars believe that the United States’ lack of condemnation of the settlements may have played a role in the October 7 attacks. The Democrats have also taken a hard-line stance of support for Israel, which many supports take issue with, believing some of Israel’s actions should be questioned, if not audited.
Stolen Valor accusations
JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, has accused Tim Walz of stolen valor because he exited the military just before his battalion was deployed to Iraq. Walz spent 24 years in the Army National Guard and retired Command Sergeant Major Walz from the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion in 2005, just before his first right for congressional office. He did so after being told his unit would be deployed. This, combined with a comment about having handled weapons of war made by Walz, sparked the original allegations. Further allegations were made by Alex Jones, in which he says Walz claimed he was in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. This claim is easily debunked as it’s based on Walz’s comment about being in Afghanistan with US troops during a congressional trip.