Tradition calls for the presidential candidate to tack to the middle and to choose a Vice President who will capture a state which the opposition might otherwise win. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’ choice as running mate, does neither. Walz is a less-well-known version of California Governor Gavin Newsom, an ultra-progressive who is aligned with Harris on every radical position she supports. And 1972 was the last time a Republican presidential candidate captured Minnesota, when Richard Nixon defeated George McGovern. Although the GOP has made inroads in recent years, the state should remain safely blue.
Among U.S. residents, 71% have neither heard of Walz nor are sure how to evaluate him. But Walz has been in politics since 2006, when he began the first of six terms serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and before being elected and re-elected Minnesota’s governor in 2018 and 2022. Walz’s 26 years in public office should give concerned voters ample insight into his views on their top priority---immigration---and other controversial social issues like his handling of the 2020 BLM riots that cost Minneapolis-St. Paul taxpayers $2 billion.
On open borders and advocacy for more taxpayer funded benefits for illegal aliens, Walz is a carbon copy of Harris. He supports how Biden and Harris have stood idly by and watched millions of unvetted illegal aliens, including at least 99 from Pakistan, Iraq, Somalia and other nations on the terrorist watch list, cross into the U.S. and disappear into the interior. A sampling of his votes while he was in Congress shows that Walz is all-in on supporting more illegal immigration and providing them with more benefits. Walz was only one of ten co-sponsors on H.R. 2940 which would make it easier for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to waive grounds of inadmissibility related to terrorism. Walz also voted for H.R. 392, the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, which would remove the per-country caps for employment visas and flood the country with even more foreign labor that would take American jobs from U.S. tech workers. As governor, Walz continued and intensified his illegal immigration advocacy. Walz sent a letter to congressional leaders in 2021 which urged them to pass amnesty legislation for “essential workers, Dreamers, Temporary Protected Status holders, and their families.” In the letter, Walz referred to amnesty as “the right thing to do” for the country. He promoted sanctuary state status for Minnesota, the North Star Act, signed a law that gave illegal aliens free public college tuition, and another law that gave drivers licenses to illegal aliens making it easier for them to get to jobs that are illegal for them to hold.
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Walz has more heavy baggage that, if it ever becomes nationally known, would hurt Harris’ presidential bid.
*A pesky 1995 DUI charge has resurfaced. Walz, living in Nebraska, was stopped for driving 96 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. He had a blood alcohol level of 0.128, well over Nebraska’s legal limit of 0.1 Ultimately, after telling several versions of the incident, Walz plead guilty to a reckless driving misdemeanor. His contradictory statements raised questions about his honesty.
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*As the Black Lives Matter riots swept through Minnesota, Walz’s leadership came under intense scrutiny. Critics argue that his failure to call the National Guard immediately allowed the chaos to escalate, and ultimately destroyed neighborhoods and small businesses. Harris’ involvement didn’t help matters; she was busy soliciting bail money for arrested protesters through the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which added fuel to the fire.
*The governor changed the Minnesota flag to more closely resemble Somalia’s even though Somali gangs had terrorized shoppers at the Mall of America and at other Twin-Cities locations.
* In January 2023, Walz signed into law Minnesota legislation that includes no limitations on when a woman may end the life of her unborn baby, abortion.
*In March, 2023, Walz signed an executive order that affirmed gender affirming health care for Minnesota’s LGBTQ community.
* Signed a bill that took effect on January 1 that required public schools to provide free menstrual products in boys and girls bathrooms. Co-sponsor Sandra Feist hailed Walz’s bill and said, “Not all students who menstruate are female.”
*Finally, Walz signed an executive order ensuring that Minnesota children have access to irreversible transgender surgeries and sterilizing hormone treatments, which proponents call “gender-affirming care.”
Walz and Harris’ immigration and societal perspectives are far outside of the mainstream but, to date, the complicit media has kept their extreme policies under wraps. Since her coronation, Harris has gone seventeen days without taking a single question, a strategy that’s been working for her. A poll taken just after Biden dropped out, for example, showed that voters trusted her and Trump equally to bring down prices. She’s avoided, in the public’s eye at least, being tied to Biden’s inflationary policies, his open border agenda and warmongering administration. In Harris’ Philadelphia speech and Walz’s acceptance, neither mentioned the words “inflation” or “border.” Her website is a fundraising vehicle that offers no policy proposals from which voters may review and draw their own conclusions.
Critics claim that the Harris-Walz ticket is the most radical in presidential history, a conclusion that well-informed voters may disagree with but should decide for themselves before they cast their votes.
Joe Guzzardi is an Institute for Sound Public Policy analyst. Contact him at [email protected]
