Tim Walz in Sunday Political Talk Show interviews during 2020-2024

On Technology: Boost mass transit & new Amtrak rail line

Also among Walz's climate accomplishments: boosting Minnesota's mass transit, including by championing a new Amtrak rail line, between the Twin Cities and Chicago, which came online in May.

Under Walz's leadership, the state of Minnesota also tackled planet-heating pollution from the building sector by updating its commercial buildings codes and energy efficiency rules while lowering utility costs for low-income households.

On Abortion: Has two children, both conceived by IVF

• Walz met his future wife, Gwen Whipple, a native Minnesotan, as they were both high school teachers in temporary classrooms. The first lady said she was irked by his loud voice disrupting her classroom.
• The two eventually moved to Mankato, Minnesota, where they both worked at Mankato West High School. "Gwen loved living in southern Minnesota. We jumped at the chance to move to Mankato and start our lives together."
• He has two children, Hope and Gus. Hope recently graduated from college in Montana, and Gus is in public high school in St. Paul.
• Both children were conceived through IVF and fertility treatments: "There's a reason we named [our daughter] Hope."

On Budget & Economy: Bipartisan compromise $48B budget to address 2017 crises

Walz secured a two-year, $48 billion budget deal precisely how he said he would: by getting everyone to compromise. Walz gave up on the ten-cent-a-gallon gas tax hike he had campaigned on to pay for transportation improvements, which Republicans had bitterly opposed. Meanwhile, Republicans agreed to keep in place (albeit at a slightly lower rate) what they derided as the "sick tax"--a levy on health care providers that funded the state's Medicaid program and MinnesotaCare, its health insurance program for the working poor.

On Civil Rights: Added religious-liberty protections to human-rights statutes

[A Republican] state lawmaker was critical of Walz for failing to criticize 2023 state legislation that sought to give people identifying as transgender protected status without guaranteeing religious-liberty exemptions.

This year, Walz approved new legislation that added religious-liberty protections to Minnesota's human-rights statutes, a measure that was strongly supported by the state's Catholic bishops.

On Crime: George Floyd protests: balance racial justice & public order

Walz publicly backed "swift justice" for the officers involved in Floyd's murder, drawing the ire of the state's police groups. He lamented that the protests and property damage taking over the streets were "symbolic of decades and generations of pain, of anguish unheard," and a response to a loss of trust in institutions like the police that he as a "white man" couldn't fully understand. He announced a state civil rights investigation into the Minneapolis Police Dept. and carried out symbolic actions like issuing a proclamation for 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence.

At the same time, Walz activated the National Guard to deal with protests over Floyd's murder, which he dubiously claimed were 80% out-of-state troublemakers.

On Crime: Police reforms: ban chokeholds; investigate misconduct

Walz signed a limited police reform bill into law at the height of the protests, banning chokeholds & "warrior" training techniques and mandating training for police and a duty to report on fellow officers using excessive force. It also created a statewide investigatory unit for, and a database for public records on, police misconduct.

Despite vowing to "burn political capital" to make it happen, further reform efforts died in the gridlocked legislature, and the cycle of police violence and protest has continued long after Floyd's death. Deaths at the hands of law enforcement in the state are still at elevated levels.

On Energy & Oil: By 2040, 100% of utility power from carbon-free sources

The climate victory came during a legislative session in which Democrats passed dozens of other green policies. Among them: a bill meant to streamline energy permitting that Walz signed in June. "This is a measure that will help protect our environment and get the clean energy projects that are going to help fight climate change in motion," he said.

During his tenure, the governor has also funded clean energy career training and allocated $2bn to natural resources, climate and energy projects in a bill that has been compared to the Inflation Reduction Act.

On Environment: $200M for broad ban on PFAS "forever chemicals"

On Foreign Policy: Taught school in China; speaks Mandarin

• He spent a year teaching in China after college before returning full time to the Army. He traveled to China with one of the first government-sanctioned groups of American educators to teach in Chinese high schools.
• He still speaks Mandarin.
• Both worked at Mankato West High School. "Gwen loved living in southern Minnesota. We jumped at the chance to move to Mankato and start our lives together."
• Walz taught geography and coached high school football. "I don't know if every high school geography teacher expects to be in this position at some point."
• He was the faculty adviser for the school's first gay-straight alliance chapter in 1999.
• Walz, 60, has drawn criticism for appearing older than his age. Walz responded to this on X, saying that it's because he "supervised the lunchroom for 20 years. You do not leave that job with a full head of hair. Trust me."

On Gun Control: 2016: Rated "A" by NRA; 2018: switched to "F" rating

• More than half of the bills Walz co-sponsored [in Congress] between 2015-2017 were introduced by non-Democrats.
• [As a member of Congress], Walz once earned an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association and the group's endorsement. In 2016, Guns & Ammo magazine included him on its list of top 20 politicians for gun owners.
• He later denounced the NRA and supported gun-control measures, such as an assault weapons ban. During his first campaign for governor in 2018, the NRA completely downgraded his rating. "I had an A rating from the NRA. Now I get straight F's. And I sleep just fine."
• Shortly after the deadly Las Vegas shooting in 2017, which killed 59 people, he donated campaign contributions from the NRA to a nonprofit that supported the family of military members who died or were severely wounded while serving.
• Walz is an avid hunter and scoffed at JD Vance for talking about guns when "I guarantee you he can't shoot pheasants like I can."

On Health Care: Shuttered businesses and schools during COVID-19 pandemic

Bipartisan cooperation became tougher during his second year as he used the governor's emergency power during the COVID-19 pandemic to shutter businesses and close schools. Republicans pushed back and forced out some agency heads. Republicans also remain critical of Walz over what they see as his slow response to sometimes violent unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.

Things got easier for Walz in his second term, after he defeated Republican Scott Jensen, a physician known nationally as a vaccine skeptic. Democrats gained control of both legislative chambers, clearing the way for a more liberal course in state government, aided by a huge budget surplus.

On Health Care: 2020 COVID restrictions resulted in lower death rates

Republicans increasingly objected to and tried rolling back Walz's emergency powers, and protesters chafed at his stay-at-home orders. But Walz's approach--which combined near-constant public visibility with stubbornly defying political and business pressure to reopen before the vaccine rollout--ultimately paid off: by June 2021, Minnesota had a lower death rate from COVID than any surrounding state, at 136 deaths per 100,000. For Iowa and North Dakota, governed by Trump-emulating anti-restriction Republicans, that figure was 194 and 200, respectively.

On Homeland Security: Retired after 24 years in National Guard,to run for Congress

On Principles & Values: Started "weird" meme to describe Trump/Vance

That changed with Walz's first appearance two weeks ago on Morning Joe, the MSNBC proving grounds for the would-be running mates to perform their routines.

"What I know is, people like J.D. Vance know nothing about small-town America," Walz said. He described a state of divisiveness in the country where "we can't even go to Thanksgiving dinner with our uncle because you end up in some weird fight that is unnecessary." After that got a chuckle, he added, "Well, it's true--these guys are just weird. They're running for 'He-Man Women-Haters Club' or something."

"Weird" took off, earning a battlefield promotion to the top of Democratic talking points against Donald Trump and Vance--both of whom offered plenty of material afterward to earn the descriptor.

On Principles & Values: Minnesota Lutheran, a Midwestern cultural subtype

He does not often discuss his faith publicly but has posted about attending worship during Christmas and other services at various Lutheran churches. Walz refers to Pilgrim Lutheran Church in St. Paul--a congregation in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, a mainline denomination--as "my parish."

Walz sometimes describes himself as a "Minnesota Lutheran," an identity he frames as a sort of Midwestern cultural subtype. "Because we're good Minnesota Lutherans, we have a rule: If you do something good and talk about it, it no longer counts," Walz said in April. "So what you have to do is to get someone else to talk about you."

The only previous vice president connected to the tradition was another Minnesotan, Hubert Humphrey, who was raised Lutheran but ended up attending a Methodist church.

On War & Peace: Condemned Hamas attack on Israel, but discuss ceasefire

After the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Walz ordered state flags to be flown at half-mast and criticized those who did not condemn the attack: "If you did not find moral clarity [after the attack], you need to reevaluate where you're at," Walz said at a [pro-Israel] vigil.

In March, Walz endorsed calls for a permanent "working" ceasefire, after Harris drew praise from the progressive base by calling for an "immediate" six-week ceasefire.

On War & Peace: Acknowledge "uncommitted" ballots as pro-Palestine protest

After tens of thousands of Democrats cast "uncommitted" ballots in Minnesota's presidential primary-- Walz took a sympathetic view, even praising those voters for being "civically engaged."

"This issue is a humanitarian crisis, they have every right to be heard," Walz said. "These folks are asking for a change in course, they're asking for more pressure to be put on." Broadly, Walz has sought to strike a balance in his rhetoric on the war. "You can hold competing things: That Israel has the right to defend itself, and the atrocities of October 7 are unacceptable, but Palestinian civilians being caught in this," Walz told Minnesota Public Radio in March.

Walz has said at the time that he supported a "working cease-fire" in Gaza, signaling support for the Biden administration's efforts to secure peace.