Tim Walz in Jacobin Magazine

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 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 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.