Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has roots in rural Nebraska • Nebraska Examiner

LINCOLN – No matter which state now claims it for itself, Kamala Harris’s chosen vice presidential candidate has rural Midwestern roots that extend into the Nebraska Sandhills and up to Pine Ridge.

Vice President Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, nominated Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate on Tuesday.

Walz, 60, is from a ranching region in northeastern Nebraska. He was born in West Point, grew up in Valentine, graduated from high school in Butte and earned his bachelor's degree from Chadron State College.

Much of his political biography is based on his time as a teacher and coach of football, track and basketball. His career began in Alliance, Nebraska, where he and his wife Gwen taught. Their Minnesota roots led them to move to Mankato in 1996.

Walz enlisted in the Nebraska National Guard as an infantryman after high school and continued to serve when he moved to Minnesota. He retired from the National Guard after 24 years in 2005 with the rank of command sergeant major. He was the highest-ranking enlisted soldier to serve in Congress, Military Times reported.

Coach remembers Walz as a teacher

Walz coached linebackers and was a defensive signalman at Alliance High School under Coach Jeff Tomlin, who recently retired and accepted a position as an assistant at Hastings College.

Tomlin said he remembers Walz as a great coach and social studies teacher. He called Walz “an ordinary guy with an extraordinary ability to have a vision of who he is and who he wants to be.”

Walz had an innate ability to connect with people who were different from him, Tomlin said.

“He was an exceptional teacher, one of the best I know,” said Tomlin, who, like Walz, taught social studies. “That was mainly because of the positive energy he brought with him.”

Tomlin said he and his other coaches were not surprised by Walz's selection.

“Once you're around Tim, you're not really shocked,” he said. “He has that certain something that very few people have.”

From a classroom in Mankato to the White House: Harris names Walz as her vice presidential candidate

Nelson says Walz is good with people

Former U.S. Senator and Nebraska Governor Ben Nelson said he remembered the young Walz as an educator who pressured him during Nelson's first campaign for governor.

Walz says his passion for teaching began when he spent a year in China in the early 1990s, teaching English and American history to high school students.

“He is a very principled person with deep convictions about education and family,” Nelson said. “He is … the kind of person who never meets strangers. He makes friends quickly.”

He called Walz “a good friend” and “a warm person” who takes no time to make people feel good. Nelson praised Harris's selection as vice president as an opportunity to build a better connection with the Midwest.

Nelson compared Harris's task of selecting a lieutenant governor to choosing a lieutenant governor, saying you want someone who shares your values ​​and reflects your campaign's vision well.

Political observers expect Walz to support Harris' campaign in the “Blue Wall” states of Minnesota, Michigan and Pennsylvania, as well as in Nebraska's 2nd district, the area around Omaha.

“He doesn't have to introduce himself to these states,” Nelson said. “I don't think he has to go and convince them that he's interested in the same areas as them.”

Walz often visits Nebraska

Walz, while a trip to Omaha in September 2023 for the Nebraska Democratic Party's “Ben Nelson Gala,” explained his political approach as going out and talking to people like neighbors. He spoke at the event also in 2010when it was still called the Morrison-Exon dinner.

Harris nominates Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her Democratic running mate

Walz boasted about his work to expand school lunches and breakfasts for all schoolchildren. He supported abortion rights, paid family leave, improved health care, and recreational marijuana.

However, he told the Nebraska group that Democrats need to focus more on people's financial resources and family budgets so that people will embrace progressive policies, including on climate change.

“You can go out and try to get that across, but at the end of the day, it's pretty hard to vote against kids' meals,” he said. “We should focus on the things that make people's lives better.”

He laughed when asked if he considered himself a Nebraskan or a Minnesotan, and said last fall that his mother still lives in Butte and his brother-in-law still lives in Alliance.

Jane Kleeb, chairwoman of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said Walz “brings real and profound experience from rural towns, veteran communities and, of course, dealing with teachers.”

“Rural America is having its big moment on the national stage,” she said.

Walz served in Congress from 2007 to 2019. He was elected governor of Minnesota in 2018 and re-elected in 2022.

Kerrey: Election could bridge gap between city and country

Bob Kerrey, former governor of Nebraska and U.S. senator, said it was critical for Democrats nationally to show interest in the issues facing Americans outside their cities and suburbs.

Walz, he said, will shine for his ability to “bridge the gap between rural and urban America.” Kerrey, who moved to New York after his time in the Senate, said people in both areas just want to be heard.

“If he can just bridge that gap a little bit, there will be good policy,” Kerrey said.

In addition, Kerrey said, it is important that those involved in national politics learn that even someone who has not studied at Harvard, Stanford or Yale can make an important contribution to our politics.

“He looks like a guy you might meet in a coffee shop in Valentine,” Kerrey said. “He's a soldier. He went to one of our state colleges. There's nothing not to like about him.”

Republicans criticize selection

Local and national Republicans criticized Walz's election for a number of reasons, calling him and Harris the most progressive presidential candidates in decades.

Eric Underwood of the Nebraska Republican Party did not initially comment on Walz. Several commentators on the Internet criticized Walz for questioning the effectiveness of a border wall.

Delanie Bomar of the National Republican Congressional Committee criticized Walz's handling of the consequences of the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis and said he was wrong about crime.

But Nelson said Nebraskans won't be fooled by valid criticism from one of their own people. He said most people know “how difficult these decisions” are for governors.

Nelson said he respected Walz for helping a city police itself after Floyd was, as a court later found, killed by a Minneapolis police officer.

“When you look at the challenges that have arisen … I think you can better appreciate how difficult it is for everyone to deal with it. It hasn't gone away,” Nelson said.

“And I don't believe that the justice system has let the events in Minnesota go unpunished.”

Harris said in a statement Tuesday that she chose Walz as her running mate because “his conviction to fight for the rights of middle-class families runs deep.”

“It's a personal matter,” she said. “As a governor, coach, teacher and veteran, he has championed working families like his own. We will build a great partnership.”