Teacher and governor: who is Tim Walz, candidate for Kamala’s vice president in the USA
As governor, he defended and promoted progressive policies. Elected in 2018, Walz was soon forced to reconcile two major crises: the Covid-19 pandemic and the case of George Floyd, a black man who died of suffocation by a white police officer during an approach. Minneapolis, the largest city in Minnesota, ended up being taken over by protests over Floyd’s death, which triggered anti-racist demonstrations in the USA for many months.
Republicans accuse him of being too ‘lax’ in the fight against crime. Democrats, on the other hand, praise their record in defending civil rights, with an agenda that includes free school meals, goals to combat climate change, tax cuts for the middle class and the protection of the right to abortion – a transcendent issue in the election campaign discussions.
It has proven appeal among white and rural voters. Although he defends issues such as women’s reproductive rights, for example, Walz also demonstrated a conservative tendency by representing a rural district in Congress, supporting agricultural interests and weapons.
He gained prominence after calling Trump’s vice president a ‘weird’. The insult became popular among Democratic supporters. “Don’t put these guys on a pedestal like they’re heroes,” Walz said during an event in Saint Paul, Minnesota. “Everyone here knows — and as a teacher, I know — that a bully has no self-confidence. They have no strength. They have nothing.”
Throughout my life, I learned to be generous with my neighbors, to make concessions without compromising my values and to work for the common good. Kamala Harris and I believe in this common good (…). We are ready to fight for it. And as she says: when we fight, we win.
Tim Walz, on X
