How Tim Walz’s 2023 legislative record could shape Kamala Harris’s presidency
By Michael Jones
Tim Walz elevated himself onto the national stage a month ago simply by keeping it real.
He brought Joe Biden’s lofty warnings of the threats former President Donald Trump, the MAGA movement, and Project 2025 posed to American democracy down to earth with a single five-letter word: weird.
He impressed the internet with his musical taste, which was informed by his fandom for Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and Bruce Springsteen.
He demonstrated a kind of Normal Dad Energy that Trump could never achieve by doing the Slingshot—the most extreme ride at the Minnesota State Fair—with his daughter Hope moments after he jokingly dismissed her vegetarianism and kept his promise to get his son Gus a dog if he won the governor’s race. (It’s a black lab named Scout if you’re wondering.)
And this was all before Vice President Kamala Harris tapped the two-term Minnesota governor as her running mate last week.
But beyond Walz’s endearing personality and humble upbringing, his selection brings substantive value to the Harris ticket: He served six terms in the House, where he is still beloved by a broad swath of the Democratic Caucus—relationships that could come in handy if he and Harris win this November and must almost instantly switch from campaigning to governing. And in five months from January to May 2023, Walz and Minnesota Democrats enacted more than 30 progressive bills in what his state’s largest newspaper described as “one of the most consequential” legislative sessions in its history that either turned national proposals into state laws or provided a template for Congress to federalize regional ideas.
This experience will be indispensable as Harris develops a bold legislative agenda that builds on the success of the Biden administration, energizes progressives without alienating moderates, and features enough fresh ideas to bring down inflation and lower everyday costs.
At the core of her agenda, of course, is reproductive freedom. Harris is running on a commitment to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade that were overturned when the Supreme Court repealed the national right to abortion care in the Dobbs decision in 2022. Walz signed a bill that Democratic lawmakers passed in the first month of the 2023 legislative session to codify the state’s existing abortion protections so they remain in place no matter who sits on the court.
And as the nation grapples with an affordable housing crisis, Walz signed bills to assist Minnesotan renters and first-generation homebuyers. On the health care front, he did the same for legislation that lowered prescription drug costs, funded student support and mental health resources, and invested in paid family leave, lead pipe removal and an expanded child tax credit.
In addition to investments in the care economy, progressive Democrats I’ve spoken to hope Harris is willing to spend political capital on education reforms, including universal school meals, free community college and special education programs. What do each of these have in common? Walz signed bills enacting them into law in 2023.
Harris oversees the White House task force on worker organizing and empowerment, and her campaign recently received critical endorsements from influential labor unions. Hence, it’s safe to assume workers’ rights will feature prominently in her agenda. Minnesota Democrats had this covered last year when it passed legislation to improve worker safety at oil refineries, ensure earned sick and safe time, extend unemployment insurance for miners, and strengthen protections for meat packing and warehouse workers—some of the most vulnerable in our economy.
The vice president also leads the White House Office of Gun Violence and Prevention. And although President Biden signed the first meaningful gun safety legislation in three decades two years ago, Democrats all agree more should be done to advance gun safety. Walz signed into law bills that required criminal background checks for firearms sales and transfers and extreme risk protection orders, known as “red flag laws.”
Harris and Walz spent this past weekend in the Phoenix area and Las Vegas, where temperatures were as high as 109 degrees. Local law enforcement was forced to close the doors to an event due to people becoming ill while waiting to go through security, a reminder that the climate crisis is real. Walz’s Minnesota House approved a bill establishing a new benchmark of 100 percent carbon-free energy by 2040 to combat the climate crisis and create new jobs.
It’s now well-documented that 25 years ago, Walz agreed to be the faculty advisor of the first gay-straight alliance at the high school where he worked as a geography teacher and football coach. But his advocacy wasn’t limited to the classroom: In 2023, he signed bills that banned the practice of conversion therapy and protected gender-affirming care in Minnesota.
Harris and Biden fell short of the votes they needed to pass voting rights reform in 2021. But it would be unthinkable for her to leave the issue as part of her agenda as president. Walz signed a bill restoring the right to vote for 55,000 formerly incarcerated people. The Minnesota House also passed legislation allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to pre-register to vote, create a permanent absentee ballot list and implement automatic voter registration.
The caveat is that Minnesota had a Democratic trifecta when Walz signed into law bills passed by state House and Senate majorities from his own party. The same goes for Biden and Harris and the key planks of his legacy, including the American Rescue Plan and Inflation Reduction Act, both passed with zero Republican votes in Congress. Former President Obama knows the value of trifectas as well: There likely would have been no Affordable Care Act if Democrats hadn’t held both chambers in Congress nearly 15 years ago.
However, a sure way to produce the down-ballot success Democrats will need to win back the House and somehow keep the Senate is for the top of the ticket to run on a transformative agenda complete with some of the policies Walz has hung his hat on as his state’s chief executive.
And it’s clear by now that Walz can not only help Harris sell it to voters but also turn his pitch into a viral meme or two that will capture the hearts and minds of the people most impacted by it.
Michael Jones is an independent Capitol Hill correspondent and contributor for COURIER. He is the author of Once Upon a Hill, a newsletter about Congressional politics.
