Teacher, veteran and gridiron glory: Tim Walz’s All-American background propelled him to the biggest political stage
When Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was chosen to be Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate in the race against former President Donald Trump and JD Vance, the pick was praised by Democrats across the board.
Former President Barack Obama called him an “outstanding governor,” and former speaker Nancy Pelosi said that he’s a “heartland of America Democrat.”
“As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he’s delivered for working families like his. It’s great to have him on the team,” Harris said on social media as she announced her pick.
In return, Walz expressed on X that it was the “honor of a lifetime” to join the ticket.
“Vice President Harris is showing us the politics of what’s possible. It reminds me a bit of the first day of school,” he added.
Polling from early August revealed that most Americans weren’t familiar with Tim Walz when he joined the Harris ticket, with 71 percent of Americans saying in a NPR/PBS/Marist survey that they either hadn’t heard of the governor or didn’t have an opinion of him. Since then, polls have shown Walz has a higher favorability rating than Vance, his opponent.
Here’s a rundown of Walz’s life and family background:
Born in West Point, Nebraska, on April 6, 1964, Walz grew up in rural Valentine, Nebraska, alongside his three siblings. His father, a public school administrator, was diagnosed with lung cancer when Walz was in high school and the family moved to Butte, Nebraska, to be closer to his father’s relatives.
The family farmed in the summers between the school years. During his campaign for governor in 2018, Walz recalled to the Star Tribune that he and his friends would bring their guns to school so they could hunt turkeys after football practice.
A year after he graduated high school in 1982, his father died, a moment that shaped his views on access to healthcare, saying in a 2018 ad that the “last week” that his father was in the hospital cost his mother “a decade” of having to return to work to pay off the hospital debt.
Walz moved from Nebraska to Texas and then to Arkansas, where he worked in a tanning bed factory before returning to his native state to get a teaching degree at Chadron State College.
“An awful lot of who I am was built on being a Nebraskan,” he told the Omaha World-Herald in 2006 when he was elected to the US House.
“Everybody knew what you were doing, but it sure kept you honest,” he added. “You could be sure your neighbor would call your parents.”
After graduating college in 1989, he set off for China to teach high school. The trip there was only his second flight, the first one having gone to Fort Benning in Georgia where he had basic training after joining the National Guard at 17.
