While Walz waits on VP decision, focus turns to his record
It’s a waiting game with a purpose, perhaps, as the Kamala Harris campaign strings out the drama of who she’ll pick as a running mate. TV news and online publications are filled with hour-by-hour speculation about the potential pick.
“It’s very strange to be running on my treadmill and hear people talking about things (about me) … and I scream back, they’re saying this guy is too old and I say I’m running my butt off here,” Walz told reporters last week.
Speculation heated up in Washington on Monday that the VP pick is down to Walz or Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. Walz and Shapiro both interviewed with Harris on Sunday. On Monday Walz was back in Minnesota and spoke at a Harris fundraiser in Minneapolis.
If Harris does pick Walz and they go on to win the election it would set off a political chain of events in Minnesota. As outlined in the state Constitution, a vacancy in the governor’s office would be filled by Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan and her position would be filled by Senate President Bobby Joe Champion.
If Walz is the VP pick, there will also be a lot of focus on his 12 years in Congress and six years as governor. Walz was a wide-eyed freshman in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006 when he told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS how crazy it felt going from being a teacher to Congress.
“We just had a session talking about some of the benefits and things like that and they were talking about, ‘I know most of you are taking pay cuts,’” Walz said about how many members of Congress come from wealthy backgrounds. “And I leaned to my aide and said, ‘This is four times what I’ve ever made in my life.’ I don’t understand what they’re talking about, so that connection to the average person is just stunning to me.”
Walz was elected to Congress at the same time as former Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann and current Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. Bachmann was considered very conservative and Ellison very liberal. Walz viewed himself as the middle ground between the two.
“What’s great for me is that I didn’t have to craft a political message for that,” Walz said in 2006. “I am of the moderate middle like most Americans are.”
However, after 12 years in Congress and six years as governor he is now considered as a more progressive or liberal politician.