Why Kamala Harris Picked Tim Walz

Tim Walz is going to bring big Midwestern dad energy to the presidential campaign.

Minnesota’s governor won’t deliver a key state or bring key policy experience that Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, lacks. She picked him to run as her vice president for one reason above all others: His biography and his demeanor make him a familiar figure for voters who might not be attracted to a Black and South Asian woman from California.

The Walz vibes are very different from those of recent top-of-the-ticket Democrats. The party is used to national candidates who’ve spent decades, if not their entire lives, preparing for the big stage. Walz was teaching social studies and geography, not climbing the ladder, 20 years ago. In the last two weeks, as Harris shortlisted him to be her running mate, Walz referred to himself privately as “the dog that caught the car,” seemingly shocked by his own luck.

Walz is a former small-town high school football coach who spends his free time hunting and fishing. He wears a camouflage hat while campaigning and speaks with the nasal accent native to the Upper Midwest. I grew up in Central Illinois and spent years living and working in Wisconsin. Hearing Walz speak reminds me of what it sounds like to hear another English speaker while traveling abroad — a familiar, comforting sound.

“He brings with him a vast understanding of the Midwest,” Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota told me yesterday. “This will be a vice president who has stood in deer stands in the middle of 10-degree weather and has fished across Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes.”

A political arc

Walz has had a bit of a journey on the ideological spectrum.

He was first elected to Congress as a moderate who represented a rural district. While he was a reliable vote for the House Democrats’ agenda, Walz received A ratings from the National Rifle Association and didn’t present himself as a cultural progressive. In 2016, he won re-election in his rural district by less than one point — at the same time that Donald Trump won there by almost 15 points.

When he ran for governor in 2018, Walz embraced gun control measures and disavowed his past N.R.A. support. In his first term, he presided over a divided State Legislature and had a productive working relationship with Republicans.