Little Sister Resister: VP Tim Walz

WELCOME GOV. WALZ

Welcome Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (pronounced /walz/) to the Democratic ticket as candidate for Vice President!

Walz checks all the boxes, both politically and personality-ly:

✅ White dude
✅ Veteran soldier (National Guard for 24 years)
✅ Hunter/gun owner
✅ Has both legislative (12 years as a U.S. Representative) and executive (six years as Governor of Minnesota) experience
✅ Salt-of-the-earth (high school civics teacher and football coach)
✅ Has bridged the rural and the suburban voters in Minnesota
✅ Plain-spoken (coined the "weird" trend)
✅ Heartlander: well-liked in Minnesota and nearby Wisconsin and Michigan
✅ Witty and intelligent
✅ Union supporter
✅ Young-ish (60)
✅ Champion of women's reproductive rights and LGBTQ rights
✅ Family man
✅ Strong on progressive issues
AND!
✅ Named a highway after Prince

Walz is an all-around solid choice. Truly, all of Kamala's prospects were solid; the Dems have a deep bench. Walz seems like a good dude.

Steve Sack, 2018

Walz was born in Nebraska in 1964 and moved to Minnesota in the '90s with his wife, Gwen Walz. They have two children, conceived through IVF. His wife is an English teacher! Yay!

He has a wide experience. He was a high school social studies teacher and football coach for almost 20 years. Talk about credentials to deal with the Repugs! He served both in the U.S. Congress as a representative from Minnesota and then ran for Governor in 2018 and was reelected in 2022.

He served in the National Guard for 24 years and has a strong record on veterans issues.

Walz is able to connect with conservative voters; he worked with a divided legislature as Governor, passing many important and progressive laws. He was able to bring together rural voters and suburban voters.

He has a strong progressive record, from being a strong union supporter to championing reproductive and LGBTQ rights; to strong environmental protections; legalizing cannabis; expanding background checks for gun purchases; expanding voter rights including easing voter registration to youths and expanding voting rights to felons; and protecting children by bolstering education issues, including bringing free breakfasts and lunches to all Minnesota schoolchildren. He also removed a college-degree requirement for many state-level jobs, a move that enjoyed bipartisan support.

Faced with a large budget surplus, he used it to fund the school meals in Minnesota, free tuition at public colleges, paid family and medical leave program, and health insurance for all, including undocumented immigrants.

He has a mixed gun rights record: when he was running for Congress in 2010 the NRA gave him an "A" rating and he worked to expand carry laws. By 2018, he had happily earned an "F" rating from the NRA as he worked to expand gun restrictions, and he donated the NRA's previous donation to a veteran's group.

He has a good sense of humor and is able to connect with voters with his down-to-earth, folksy personality. He has a way with words! He said in July: “These are weird people on the other side. They want to take books away, they want to be in your exam room. … They are bad on foreign policy, they are bad on the environment, they certainly have no health-care plan, and they keep talking about the middle class. As I said, a robber baron real estate guy and a venture capitalist trying to tell us they understand who we are? They don’t know who we are."

Here is his first rally with Kamala Harris, with Gov. Walz appearing at 1:20:00.

Not gonna lie. I had hoped she would pick this guy. ⌄⌄ But I'm content.

A NOTE ABOUT HYPOCRISCY

The orange moron (morange?) railed against Kamala's identity recently, accusing her of diminishing her Black heritage only to embrace it for political purposes. Total hogwash. It didn't stop Vance from jumping on the idea, calling her a "chameleon."

What a hypocrite. This is a man who changed his name multiple times, from his birth name James Donald Bowman to his taking his adoptive father's name, renouncing his abusive father's name and changing it to James David Hamel, to the current iteration, JD Vance. Once his mother and stepfather divorced and he was set to be married, he took his maternal "Mawmaw's" name of Vance and removed the periods in his initials that he used for a time.

Now, I have absolutely no qualms about this. I am the last one to suggest calling someone by their deadname. But the hypocrisy of his ilk is never-ending. Live and let live, JD!

And his Yale degree. Ivory-tower elite, anyone?

And his lovely, bright Indian wife, Usha, daughter of immigrants. How 'bout them mass deportations?

Childless families are evil? How does he reconcile the party line against IVF?

A NOTE ABOUT OUR OLDEST LIVING STATESMAN

President Jimmy Carter, who turns 100 on October 1, has said he wants to hold on until he is able to cast a ballot for Kamala. This left me verklempt.

WE HAVE 91 DAYS LEFT. THE BLUE WAVE IS COMING!

Just three months until Election Day. We are all super excited about the new Democratic ticket. We must not rest. Let's build the swell that makes that wave huge!

Keep the conversations alive about the dangers of Project 2025 and the threat to democracy.
Help get out the vote. There's a reason why the Right tries to keep people from voting. This will be an election of turn-out. Every vote matters. If you don't vote, it's a vote for T****.
Help register new voters: donate or volunteer with League of Woman Voters or Rock the Vote.
Write postcards to encourage voting: Postcards to Voters or Postcards to Swing States.
Donate or volunteer for your local candidates, or candidates in important districts across the country.
Stay woke.
Work hard. As Gov. Walz said, "We'll sleep when we're dead."