Another piece of the increasingly puzzling presidential race finally arrived Tuesday with Vice President Kamala Harris’s selection of Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota as her running mate.
“As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he’s delivered for working families like his,” Harris said in a statement announcing the selection. Moreover, she added, “We start out as underdogs, but I believe together, we can win this election.”
For many of the nation’s citizens, particularly Black Americans, Walz came into the news cycle after the murder of George Floyd in May 2020. Walz was criticized and faulted for his slowness in stifling the imminent riots by calling in the National Guard. It was suggested that his delayed response to the turbulence may have stemmed from his sympathies toward the protesters.
How he handled that situation and several other vital issues—the economy, immigration, women’s reproductive rights—are among several things that will arise as he and Harris hit the campaign trail.
Walz, along with Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Mark Kelley of Arizona, was on the shortlist in the veepstakes. He is 60; a veteran of the U.S. Army National Guard; for 12 years, a member of Congress; and governor of Minnesota since 2018. On Tuesday evening in Philadelphia, more will be known about Walz once he’s on the hustings and bombarded by the press with questions.
On several occasions, Walz defended his actions or lack thereof about the turmoil following the Floyd murder, stating that under the “circumstances, I did the best I could.” A report by the Minnesota Senate took him to task, noting that the governor “was not willing to do what was necessary to stop the rioting right away because he was having a philosophical debate about whether the use of force should be used to stop violence.”
To be sure, Trump will cite this incident and Walz’s supposed failure as fodder, which he has done in the past, in his response to Harris’s choice. Walz will certainly counter Trump’s VP JD Vance on women’s reproductive rights, which he has long advocated, should Vance remain as Trump’s running mate, given the rumors that he has vexed his partner with his comments about women. Many pundits believe that Harris chose Walz to gain additional clout in the rural districts of the state and elsewhere—geographically, Minnesota is close enough to Wisconsin and Michigan to give the Democratic team some cachet in the fight for key battleground states.
It might be too early to gather the general reaction to Walz as the Democratic running mate, but one Black woman in Minnesota has voiced strong support for him. On the Opinion Page of the Minneapolis Star Tribune a few days ago, Sheletta Brundidge, an award-winning broadcaster, wrote that “Without a shadow of a doubt or a hint of reservation, I am 100% certain that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is the best option to be her vice president. He knows how to give unwavering support to Black women. He is not just an ally; he is our accomplice. How can I speak with such certainty? Because Walz has shown such support to me.”
She said that Walz quickly came to her aid at the height of the pandemic after she changed her mind about her anti-vaccine position. “My public reconsideration turned me into a target for anti-vaxxers who planned to protest when I was vaccinated,” she said. “At 11 p.m. on the night before I was scheduled to get the shot, police came to my door, saying they had received ‘credible threats’ against me and my family.
“Walz was in touch, asking what I needed to be safe. He made sure we had extra security and was by my side when the Hy-Vee pharmacist gave me the shot, whispering, ‘You got this.’”
Not only has Walz used his presence to support Black women, Brundidge said—he has also used his pen. “He signed into law the CROWN Act, which bans racial discrimination based on hair texture and styles, and the African American Family Preservation Act, which addresses disparities in the child welfare system and promotes the stability of Black families,” she said. “He signed the bill that established the state’s Office of Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls in response to the Minnesota statistic that Black women are three times more likely to be murdered than white women.”
There are sure to be other opinions, pros and cons as we go forward, but Walz is off to a good start with Brundidge in his corner.