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CHICAGO — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has gone from a relatively unknown Midwestern politician to accepting the nomination for the second-highest elected post in the United States in just two weeks. The campaign has little time to introduce him to voters.
Walz's speech at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday in Chicago will play a large role in that effort. Here are five facts to know about him:
1. The Walz-Harris campaign is leaning hard into his days of teaching and coaching
Walz routinely points back to his time in the classroom in speeches and public appearances. He has a long teaching history in Minnesota and Nebraska ahead of his time in elected office. Twenty-two of his former high school students from southern Minnesota turned out to the Minnesota Capitol last week to show their support for their former teacher.
One of the former students, Dan Clement, told reporters Walz being on the ticket changed how he was planning to vote in November.
“A lot of the other stuff that I may not agree with, gets thrown out the window when it comes to Coach Walz,” said Clement, a self-identified third-party voter. “That man did a lot for me in my life, and I owe him the support that he’s going to get from me.”
Walz credits some of his former students for encouraging him to first run for Congress in 2006.
Democrats hope these kinds of stories resonate with voters who might see a teacher or coach in Tim Walz that they had in school — especially in the crucial “Blue Wall” states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
2. Walz is not a native Minnesotan; he’s from Nebraska
Walz spent his formative years in rural Nebraska. He was born in West Point and moved to Valentine before graduating high school in Butte. After graduating from Chadron State College, he taught in Alliance. All these towns are far from the population centers of Lincoln and Omaha.
Walz’s stump speech focuses on the “values” he says he picked up from growing up in Valentine and Butte.
“Strength comes from our values, values of working together, seeing past differences, and always being willing to be a neighbor to lend a helping hand,” Walz said during his first solo campaign stop in Omaha over the weekend. “Now it's time for Vice President Harris and I, as we're running on these values, let's take them to the White House.”
The lone electoral vote in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District can split off from the rest of the reliably Republican state. The electoral vote went to Democratic Presidents Joe Biden in 2020 and Barack Obama in 2008.
Walz moved to his wife Gwen’s home state of Minnesota in 1996, where the two taught in Mankato before he ran for Congress.
His Midwestern family man persona has become a key part of his image for the campaign, and part of how Harris hopes to appeal to voters in the region.
3. Walz served in the National Guard, and his record has been part of the campaign
Walz joined the National Guard at age 17 and served 24 years, first in Nebraska then Minnesota. During that time, he got called up to national disasters and a deployment to the Arctic Circle in Norway. He completed his 20 years required for retirement in 2001, but then reenlisted after the attacks on Sept. 11. His only wartime deployment was to Italy in 2003, backfilling troops that were deploying to Afghanistan. So Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance, and many veterans on social media, took issue with Walz saying he’d carried weapons “in war” when talking about gun control in a video shared by the Harris-Walz campaign.
The Harris campaign said in a statement: “In his 24 years of service, the Governor carried, fired and trained others to use weapons of war innumerable times. Governor Walz would never insult or undermine any American's service to this country -- in fact, he thanks Senator Vance for putting his life on the line for our country. It's the American way."
Vance, himself a veteran who did not see combat, has gone as far as to accuse Walz of “stolen valor.” Read more about Walz’ military record here.
4. Walz had a moderate voting record while serving in Congress, but became more progressive as governor
Walz defeated a longtime Republican in a mostly rural district in southern Minnesota and was seen as a moderate vote in Congress.
When he was first elected governor in 2018, Walz had to regularly find compromise between the state’s Republican-controlled Senate and the Democratic-controlled House.
In 2022 when he was reelected, Democrats won full control of state government in Minnesota, giving Walz the opportunity to sign many progressive priorities into law, including providing paid family leave, legalizing recreational marijuana and enacting several gun restrictions. Walz signed a law enshrining abortion access into Minnesota statutes following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2023.
5. His critics point to his handling of 2020 riots, how he navigated the pandemic, and fraud in state government under his watch
Walz faced criticism over how he responded in the days following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. The criticism centers on whether Walz deployed the Minnesota National Guard quickly enough to quell the unrest that erupted after Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer. Walz has defended his actions, including reforms taken up after the protests.
Republicans in the Minnesota legislature also blame Walz for recent legislative audits that have shown millions of dollars in fraud in state government, including what federal prosecutors call the biggest pandemic fraud case in the nation. The audits have highlighted gaps in administrative oversight.
“This falls squarely on the shoulders of our governor,” Demuth said. “He has got to take responsibility, if those in his administration and the commissioners that he has hand selected are not willing to take responsibility then he needs to.”
Walz has said he accepts responsibility for the failures but said there wasn’t any malfeasance by the state.
NPR's Quil Lawrence contributed to this report.
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