Your trusted source for contextualizing Election 2024 news. Sign up for our daily newsletter.

Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic nominee for president, picked Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota as her running mate.

Walz is a former teacher, military veteran and ex-member of Congress elected as Minnesota’s governor in 2018 and again in 2022. 

In office, Walz and Minnesota’s Democratic state legislature have enacted an ambitious progressive policy agenda including investments in education and caregiving and enhanced protections for abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. 

Here’s a look at Walz’s record and positions on key issues.

Abortion | LGBTQ+ rights | Child care | Disability and aging | Education | Gun control

Abortion

As governor, Walz established himself as an ally of the abortion rights movement, notably by enacting a law that enshrined “reproductive freedom” into the state’s constitution. Abortion is legal at any point in pregnancy in the state. Under his watch, the state repealed other restrictions, including a 24-hour waiting period for people seeking abortions, and passed a law meant to shield Minnesota health providers and patients from abortion-related prosecution in other states. 

Walz has criticized efforts to restrict access to in vitro fertilization — including an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that temporarily outlawed IVF in that state — citing his family’s experience with fertility treatment.

Walz did not take a stance on a Minnesota bill this year that would have required insurers to cover fertility care. The bill did not pass.

Abortion opponents criticized the pick, with Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America, calling the combination of Harris and Walz “the most pro-abortion presidential ticket America has ever seen.” Walz’s selection won praise from abortion rights supporters. Mini Timmaraju, president of the advocacy group Reproductive Freedom for All, called the governor “a steadfast champion for reproductive freedom.”

LGBTQ+ rights

LGBTQ+ organizations have applauded Harris for picking Walz, who simultaneously coached football as a teacher at Mankato West High School in 1999 and helped start the school’s first Gay Straight Alliance. 

As governor in 2021, Walz signed an executive order banning conversion therapy, or the discredited practice of trying to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. In Congress, he co-sponsored the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act and consistently voted in favor of LGBTQ+  rights, like the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which barred LGBTQ+ service in the military. 

Walz is also backed by transgender leaders eager to see a Democratic ticket that will go to bat against a rash of anti-trans bills in recent years. Transgender journalist Imara Jones praised the choice in a tweet Tuesday. 

“Tim Walz signed a bill making Minnesota a sanctuary state for transgender people, as well as safeguarding gender affirming care,” Jones wrote. “His nomination sends a powerful signal to the trans community at a moment of unprecedented attacks.”

Child care

Walz has been a strong advocate for care workers and caregivers, saying it’s been his goal to make Minnesota the best state to raise a family. Last year, he signed a paid family and medical leave law that grants workers 12 weeks at 90 percent of their pay to care for a newborn or sick family member. Workers get an additional 12 weeks off to recover from serious illness. The law includes a rare provision known as “safe time” for domestic violence survivors, which people can use to find safe housing, get a protection order or go to court.

In 2023, Walz launched a $316 million grant program to boost wages for child care workers and in 2024, he announced an additional $6.2 million in new grants to expand and stabilize child care businesses across Minnesota. 

Walz also expanded Minnesota’s child tax credit in 2023 to $1,750 a year, making it fully available to the lowest-income families with no limit on the number of children who can be claimed. It’s the highest child tax credit in the country.

Disability and aging

As governor, Walz oversaw a 31 percent pay increase for home care workers and a $1,000 retention bonus, achieved through negotiation between state officials and the Service Employees International Union. This increase also included family caregivers of disabled and older adults, who can be paid through the state’s consumer-directed care program. 

He also signed the Minnesota Nursing Home Workforce Standards Board Act, which will establish minimum standards around issues like wages and overtime pay in the state’s nursing homes. 
As a result of these investments in disability and aging services, Minnesota ranked #1 on AARP’s first-ever Long-Term Services and Supports Scorecard in 2023, earning especially high marks in support for family caregivers.

Education

Walz, a former history teacher, was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006 and stayed true to his educator roots. One of his crowning accomplishments as governor was a law he signed in 2023 that made Minnesota one of just six states then to offer free lunch to public school students.

In January, a law took effect in Minnesota requiring public schools to stock free menstrual products in both girls’ and boys’ bathrooms. 

During Walz’s tenure, Minnesota also launched a program to make college free for students from families with annual incomes under $80,000.

Gun control

In less than 10 years, Tim Walz has gone from receiving endorsements and donations from the National Rifle Association (NRA) to receiving an “F” ranking from the pro-firearm organization.

As governor, Walz signed a number of gun safety measures into law including universal background checks, a “red flag” law that allows law enforcement or family members to petition a judge if there are concerns around someone’s use of firearms and harsher punitive measures for people caught purchasing a firearm for someone ineligible of gun ownership.

Chabeli Carrazana, Grace Panetta, Julie Bogen, Kate Sosin, Nadra Nittle, Sara Luterman and Shefali Luthra contributed reporting.

Correction: An earlier version of this article misstated when a patient can access abortion in Minnesota. Abortion is legal at any point in pregnancy in the state.