Vice President Kamala Harris has tapped Tim Walz, the Democratic governor of Minnesota, as her running mate following President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race last month. Walz’s recent comments about former President Donald Trump and Senator J.D. Vance, particularly his remarks about the opposition’s “weird” qualities, helped put the little-known progressive on the national map.
Before his cable news commentary went viral and Harris ushered him into the national spotlight, the former soldier, football coach, and high school teacher was in the midst of an unexpectedly ambitious and productive second term as the chief executive of the North Star State. A progressive with a rural background and a penchant for coalition building, Walz was able to wield a precarious Democratic trifecta to achieve a slew of progressive priorities. The biggest of these took place just a few months after the 2022 midterm elections, when Walz signed a law that requires the state’s utilities to get 100 percent of their electricity from clean sources by 2040. The legislation quickly catapulted Minnesota, a blue state with purple inclinations, to the top of the state-level climate action leaderboard.
“It’s not about banking political capital for the next election,” Walz said last year. “It’s about burning political capital to improve lives.” Yet Walz appears to have political capital to spare — as of February, he has a 55 percent approval rating in his home state.
As governor, Walz also signed bipartisan legislation to reform Minnesota’s permitting process for clean energy projects, funded a clean energy jobs training program for minority and low-income Minnesotans, approved new clean transportation standards, and enacted a law directing $240 million toward replacing the state’s lead water pipes. In other states, Republicans (and even some centrist Democrats) have sought to cast politicians overseeing ambitious climate agendas as hellbent on raising energy prices and as generally being out of touch with the general public. But Walz’s reputation as an everyman and his skill as a communicator may have shielded him from the typical anti-climate attacks.
“I think he has a really well-rounded climate record,” said Paul Austin, the head of the Conservation Minnesota, a state environmental nonprofit. “He’s a person who tries to bring people together across communities and geographies to find solutions that work for everybody. That’s been part of his hallmark.”
Walz’s experience in Minnesota could be a boon to Harris as she crafts an on-the-fly legislative agenda that builds on progress made by the Biden administration. Biden’s crowning policy achievement, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, is sending billions of dollars to states and tribes for clean energy projects and deployment. It’s unlikely that Congress will pass another law like it in the short term. That’s particularly true if Trump is reelected, but it’s a safe bet even with Harris in the White House — polls suggest that whichever party controls the Senate, House, or both, will likely have a razor-thin majority. Much of the climate action we’ll see in the next few years will likely come from states.
Many states already led the way on climate change when Trump was in office, before the Inflation Reduction Act was passed. But many more states are poised to spend money on renewables and climate projects now that federal clean energy incentives are flowing across the country. “It’s great to have the help of someone who has served as governor and has seen how the federal government works and delivers from the other side,” Austin said. “He’s going to bring a lot of experience about how states and the federal government work together and how that can be smoothed out and improved.”
This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here. Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org.
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