Though Kamala Harris’ vice presidential running mate, Tim Walz, may be seen as an “old white guy” – a phrase the Minnesota governor used in jest during his first campaign rally on Tuesday – those familiar with his record say he has always been on the side of Black and marginalized communities.
“He has proven to be a friend of the Black community,” said Fred Redmond, secretary-treasurer at AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest union organization. Redmond continued, “Just by virtue of some of the legislation that he passed as governor, some of the bills that he supported while he was a member of Congress … I think our community will really get behind his candidacy.”
Redmond, who is the highest-ranking Black American in labor movement history, said Gov. Walz, who served 12 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, has an “impeccable record” on civil rights.
As Vice President Harris highlighted at Tuesday’s rally in Philadelphia, as governor, Walz signed a bill in 2023 restoring the voting rights of formerly incarcerated Minnesotans. The law allowed 50,000 formerly convicted individuals to rejoin the state’s voting rolls.
Redmond noted that the vice presidential nominee also served as “a great spokesman” for the voting rights of Black and brown communities.
He recalled the then-congressman “spoke out publicly when he was a member of the House in favor of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.”
The labor leader also noted other pieces of legislation that benefited Minnesota’s nearly 400,000 Black residents, including establishing universal school meals for students and a public safety law establishing universal background checks and red flag restrictions to prevent gun violence, which disproportionately impacts Black youth.
In June, Walz also announced $2.7 million in grants to build career pathways into “good-paying” union trade jobs as well as in construction, clean energy, and energy efficiency for people of color, such as Black and Indigenous individuals, and low-income Minnesotans.
Markus Batchelor, national political director at People For the American Way, told theGrio that Walz’s record will “add something to the ticket and give Black folks surety that they’re going to have a champion in the White House, both in President Harris and Vice President Walz.”
Batchelor noted that in addition to Walz having an appeal across demographics, he will especially “bolster” appeal to “white working-class voters, white suburbanites, [and] white men in particular.” He added, “[It’s] going to be important to a successful coalition this fall.”
The progressive advocate believes Walz, who coined the “weird” term Democrats have lodged at Republican nominee Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance, will also serve as a “really effective messenger” and an “additive” to Harris’ “already aggressive stance against Trump.”
Batchelor said it was always important for Democrats to “run an aggressive campaign” against Trump, his behavior, and “abnormal” vision for the country, but one that didn’t “stoop to his level.” He added, “I think Walz is doing that in very effective ways.”
Democratic strategist Joel Payne said Walz’s “folksy” and “say it plain” style is something that can resonate in a political environment where there is “generally low trust of public officials” and “misinformation all over the place.” He told theGrio, “Having a messenger who can actually break through is helpful.”
“My guess is that the Harris campaign thinks that that will be something that will ultimately benefit them to have that type of messenger with that type of credibility and appeal,” Payne added.
Despite Walz’s perceived likability and appeal to a broad electorate, Republicans are taking aim at the Minnesota governor and delayed response in sending the National Guard during Black Lives Matter protests in Minneapolis following the police murder of George Floyd in 2020. Though protests were largely peaceful across the country, there were incidents of businesses being vandalized.
At a rally on Tuesday, Walz’s Republican opponent, Vance, questioned whether “Black business owners in Minneapolis are grateful” that the governor “allowed rioters to burn down their business.”
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According to the BBC, Walz said at a press conference earlier this month that the Minneapolis mayor at the time did not give his office “adequate information to provide the soldiers a mission at that time.”
“Decisions were made in a situation that is what it is … and I simply believe that we tried to do the best we can,” said Walz.
Payne told theGrio of the criticisms over 2020, “If you talk to folks on the ground there, they will say that … there was frustration with local officials and that Walz was being deferential to those local officials.”
“They’re going to spin up whatever they want to spin up, because that’s all they do because they don’t have good ideas,” Payne added. “I don’t know if that oppo is going to stick the way that Republicans hope.”
Batchelor dismissed attacks from Republicans as “pretty ridiculous” given the party’s “rhetoric and positioning on police reform and racial justice.”
Minnesota Attorney Keith Ellison told theGrio’s April Ryan that Gov. Walz asked him to take on the case in prosecuting former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in the murder of Floyd.
“He was genuinely disturbed by what he saw,” said Ellison, who also shared that Harris called to thank the state prosecution team after Chauvin was convicted.
Ellison said of both Harris and Walz, “both of them touched that case and … were critical parts of how we were able to get a good result for the Floyd family.”
