Tim Walz’s ascension to the No. 2 spot for the nation’s Democrats has left a lot of questions from those just now hearing about him. Even Minnesotans might not remember all they know about the DFL governor. Hope this helps.
A: Abortion — “Not on my watch,” was the first reaction from Walz the morning that abortion access in Minnesota was at risk after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned court precedent that abortion was a right covered by the U.S. Constitution. Following the lead of legislative leaders, Minnesota not only placed reproductive rights into state law but repealed most restrictions in law on when and where abortions can be performed.
B: Butte High School — The small school in the small town in northeastern Nebraska is the scene for many of Walz’s stories, both somber and funny. His father died when he was 19 and the family lived on Social Security survivor benefits and his mom’s income when she returned to work. He jokes that there were 25 kids in his class, 12 of them cousins and how he brought his gun to school so he could hunt turkeys after football practice. His small town and rural bona fides were crafted in West Point, Butte, Valentine and Alliance, Nebraska.
C: COVID-19 — Within weeks of the novel virus emerging and the declaration of a global pandemic, Walz triggered state emergency power and began restricting access to schools, businesses and public places. What was first a unified Legislature when the crisis began soon separated along party lines with monthly sessions used to debate the emergency powers, remove some Walz appointees and criticize Walz’s response to the pandemic. Ultimately, Minnesota’s actions were deemed more restrictive than some states but less restrictive than others. Walz’s handling of COVID became the main motivation for former GOP lawmaker Scott Jensen to challenge Walz’s reelection bid in 2022.
D: Divided Government — While much is being made of Walz’s leadership during the all-DFL trifecta, his first term was spent in divided government. The House was run by DFL House Speaker Melissa Hortman and the Senate by GOP Majority Leader Paul Gazelka. Passing budgets (in both 2019 and 2021) that required bipartisan agreement might have been a bigger accomplishment than the sweeping agenda adopted by the all-DFL government in 2023.
E: Enlisted — Walz was 17 when he enlisted in the National Guard where he would serve for 24 years, retiring only when he began his 2006 campaign for Congress. The experience colored much of his congressional service where, after achieving the rank of command sergeant major he was Congress’ highest ranking enlisted service member. Republicans have resurfaced allegations that Walz left the guard to avoid a deployment to Iraq, but he says he retired to run for Congress before the rumored deployment was announced.
F: Feeding Our Future — In the midst of the COVID-19, hundreds of millions of federal dollars were distributed to enhance two existing food programs. Federal investigators looked into and eventually filed charges against 70 people for falsifying records and getting reimbursements for at least $250 million in meals never delivered. A highly critical report by the Office of the Legislative Auditor concluded the state Department of Education under Walz-appointed commissioners for failing to act on warning signs and exercise its authority under state and federal law to stop the fraud, though the agency did have suspicions and tried to suspend payments, ultimately notifying federal officials.
G: George Floyd — The murder of Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer on Memorial Day, 2020, triggered a state and national reckoning over race. Walz was instrumental in bringing state Attorney General Keith Ellison in as a co-prosecutor of the four police officers charged and managing the state’s response to rioting (see below). All was done in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
H: Hot Dish — A rare bipartisan tradition in Congress is the hot dish competition among the Minnesota state delegation. Walz took part and in 2016 won his third trophy. Wrote MinnPost’s Sam Brodey at the time, “The 1st District Democrat entered the competition with swagger, trailed by staffers carrying his last two hotdish trophies. (An engraved pyrex hotdish plate is given to the winner.)”
I: IVF — When an Alabama court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, a ruling that could affect in-vitro fertilization, commonly referred to as IVF, Walz spoke of he and his wife Gwen’s use of IVF to conceive their first child, Hope. He used his position as chair of the Democratic Governors Association to campaign for the appointment of state judges who would protect the practice and was assured that Minnesota law already protects IVF.
J: Joy, politics thereof – Hubert Humphrey is having a moment in Minnesota and nationally. Not only was he the state’s first vice president, serving under President Lyndon Johnson, but he was known for a positive campaign style that earned him the political nickname “the Happy Warrior” and a biography titled “The Politics of Joy.” When Walz joined the ticket, he said Harris was bringing back the joy to politics and the label was again used to describe the campaign.
K: Kamala — Walz needed one vote to be assured the Democratic nomination for vice president: Kamala Harris’ vote. He got it.
L: Lunches, as in free — In 2023, the DFL Legislature passed a law and the accompanying funding to make school lunches and breakfasts free for all students, replacing the need-based state-federal school lunch program. The purpose was to end a system that some said stigmatized lower income students, but it has become a central tenet of Walz’s governorship. And it finds its way into his criticism of Republicans when he says, “They’re banishing books from their schools. We’re banishing hunger from ours.”
M: Mankato — Walz and his wife Gwen met as school teachers in Alliance, Nebraska, and both worked in public schools in Mankato after moving to her home state. He considers Mankato his hometown, and many of the belief-forming experiences he speaks of were there, from patrolling the lunch room to advising a student gay-straight alliance, and yes, serving as an assistant football coach under head coach Rick Sutton when Sutton brought the first state title to Mankato West High School in 1999.
N: NRA — Somewhere in Walz’s closet is the camo hat with the NRA logo across the front. He doesn’t wear it anymore. The gun-owning pheasant hunter once held an A rating from the group and was listed among Guns & Ammo magazine’s “Top 20 Politicians for Gun Owners” as recently as 2016. He began to modify his stance when he began his run for governor in 2017 and especially after the Parkland, Florida, school shooting. He now supports restrictions like those in the extreme risk protection order law he signed in 2023. The NRA calls him a political chameleon who changed his position for political expediency while gun safety advocate Gabby Giffords, who served in the House with Walz, has warmly endorsed him.
O: Origin Story — Walz says his political ah-ha moment was when he and a group of students were questioned at a President George W. Bush event in Mankato because one student had a John Kerry sticker. Angered by the incident, it led him to work for Kerry in 2004 and to run for Congress the following year. Another term for Origin Story is Creation Myth and there is some of that here. Michael Brodkorb last week tweeted a photo he took at the same rally of Walz holding a protest sign reading “Enduring Freedom Veterans for Kerry.” So while he might have been motivated to run for office by the events that day, he was already politically active.
P: Peggy, as in Flanagan — The former school board member and state House member joined Walz’s ticket in 2017. While Walz is now considered a darling of the progressive wing of the DFL, he was met with much suspicion when he ran for governor, due mostly to his more-moderate positions (see “N” above). He lost the DFL party endorsement to Erin Murphy in June 2018. Flanagan shored up his left flank and gave him credibility among suspicious progressives, and he easily won the August primary. She is now in position to become the state’s first woman governor and the nation’s first female Native American governor should Walz become vice president.
Q: Quill — No, Walz doesn’t use a quill pen to sign bills. Instead he uses fat Sharpies with his signature printed on them. But he might use a quill pen the rest of the time because he doesn’t appear to type. Data Practices Act requests of the governor’s office rarely reveal anything written by Walz himself.
R: Riots — Seven days in May and June of 2020 is one time period where Republicans are certain to center their opposition attacks on Walz. The governor declared a state of emergency and issued evening curfews in cooperation with the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul. But a deployment of the National Guard as well as units of the State Patrol was delayed by bad communication between Walz and Mayor Jacob Frey. A lack of clear mission left the guard standing by but not engaged when rioting destroyed the 3rd police precinct and dozens of other buildings. When the guard and patrol were fully deployed by Saturday and Sunday, rioting was quelled sooner than in other cities that faced unrest. More detail is contained in an after-action report on the events.
S: Surplus — After seeing a forecast that projected a deficit in the state budget in the summer of 2020, revenues began recovering — attributed to the impact of federal relief spending and the fact that many people remained on payrolls by working from home. Surpluses grew with each forecast before reaching $19 billion at the 2023 session began. By the end of that session, the state’s two-year budget had grown from $51.6 billion to $71.5 billion with the extra money going to pay for programs and one-time spending, including some tax rebates (though not nearly what Republicans thought was fair). Without the surplus, the DFL agenda would have been less sweeping. And despite predictions that Walz and lawmakers overspent and that deficits loomed, tax revenue has kept pace and the budget remains in the black.
T: Trifecta — In horse racing, it’s a difficult but lucrative bet that tries to predict the first, second and third place finishers. In politics, at least in Minnesota, it is also difficult but also lucrative because the same party controls the governor’s office, the House and the Senate. That was the prize for the DFL following the 2022 election, and the party made the most of it, passing a sweeping agenda including abortion rights, paid family leave, expanded child tax credits, a ban on conversion therapy for LGBTQ people, legalized recreational cannabis, mandated a carbon-free electrical grid by 2040, adopted a $2.5 billion infrastructure package and restored voting rights for incarcerated people when released rather than at the end of their probation. It is that agenda that made Walz a sought-after guest on cable news and on the Democratic party dinner and convention circuit and has made him a popular choice among Democrats nationally.
U: Uber — It was Walz’s only veto of legislation during his six years in office, a 2023 bill to regulate and increase pay and protections for rideshare drivers. He concluded that threats by Uber and Lyft to leave Minneapolis were credible and commissioned a report on the economics of the business and the complaints of drivers. Minneapolis went ahead with its own ordinance, triggering another departure threat by the companies that was canceled when Walz and legislative leaders brokered a deal passed at the end of the 2024 session.
V: Volleyball — Gwen and Tim Walz’s son Gus plays boys volleyball, which had not been a sanctioned high school sport until last year. Among all the “dad” labels he has been given, one is Volleyball Dad, per this Linkedin post.
W: Weird — Walz has been credited with popularizing the one-word description of Donald Trump, JD Vance and their policies. But while it is being portrayed as a brilliant bit of political messaging, it is probably more a result of how Walz talks. In fact, the entire schtick isn’t of recent coinage. Walz told Politico Magazine at the end of 2023 this: “When we’re running against the generic Republican, our races are always really close, but there’s no such thing [as a generic Republican]. These guys are weird. Once they start running, their weirdness shows up, and especially with the nominee on the other side. I don’t think it’s that surprising.”
X: — He has two active accounts: @tim_walz has 934,000 followers, and @GovTimWalz has 474,000 followers. He retired @RepTimWalz when he left Congress to become governor.
Y: Young People — It was the hug heard ‘round the world. OK, maybe not the whole world. But the photo of Walz being hugged by a group of school children after a ceremonial bill signing of the universal school lunch bill went viral twice – first when it happened and again during veepwatch. (Walz signs most bills in private and with the massive omnibus bills Minnesota lawmakers adore, one signature seals hundreds of bills). The former social studies teacher appears to have a connection with young people and his staff tries to schedule these visits to reinvigorate the governor (Anyone recall his serving lunch, complete with hairnet?) His favorite Dylan song? “Forever Young.”
Z: (C )Zar — The key job in the push to legalize and regulate recreational cannabis was the appointment of a new director of the new Office of Cannabis Management. After interviewing finalists, Walz announced the appointment of Erin DuPree in September, 2023, someone who had worked in the legal hemp industry but who lacked government management experience. Within two days, DuPree was pushed to step down after revelations about past financial troubles and the selling of illegal products in her hemp store. “Not the finest hour,” Walz said a day later. “In this case the process did not work, and we got this wrong.” The legislative auditor agreed, but a permanent director has still not been appointed.