He was the unassuming governor of Minnesota whose straight-talking, folksy charm has earned him the nickname “Midwestern dad”.
But Tim Walz’s profile surged as Kamala Harris’s “veepstakes” heated up, with a viral cable news interview in which he called Donald Trump and his running-mate, JD Vance, “just weird”.
The phrase caught on, appearing to get under the skin of Republicans and giving Democrats one of their most effective attack lines in years. Before picking Walz, the Harris team is said to have been struck by his potential appeal to both working-class and progressive voters.
Tim Walz, 60, grew up in small-town Nebraska. When he turned 17 he enlisted in the Army National Guard after encouragement from his father James Walz, who had