Tim Walz, a veteran, union member and football coach, and Minnesota's two-term governor, brings a record of radically improving the lives of working families to Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris' ticket.
"With a slender margin in the state House and Senate, Walz still signed into law bills increasing the rights and opportunities for union and nonunion workers. He barred employers from requiring attendance at union-busting captive-audience meetings and increased workplace safety protections for construction and warehouse workers, hospital and home nurses, and teachers.
Walz led an aggressive campaign against the largest form of theft in the United States, cracking down on companies that steal wages and wrongly deny overtime. He also allocated $24 million for job training and economic development programs, including millions specifically for good-paying union jobs in construction, clean energy and energy efficiency.
"In Minnesota, Governor Walz has led one of the nation's most pro-union, pro-worker state governments," International President Kenneth W. Cooper said. "His record of accomplishments on behalf of workers is long and cements his status as one of this nation's greatest friends of unions and working families."
Walz signed laws increasing the state child tax credit, mandating paid family and medical leave, expanding all-day kindergarten, and lowering the cost of day care, all part of what he called his "plan to make Minnesota the best place to raise kids in America."
Walz was born in a small town in rural Nebraska. He enlisted in the Army National Guard after high school and served for 24 years, attaining the rank of command sergeant major. It was only in 2005 that he began his first campaign, a run for Congress from a rural district that went on to vote heavily for Donald Trump two times.
With little money but a reputation earned the old-fashioned way, he won the House seat and was reelected five time. When he was sworn in, he became the highest-ranking noncommissioned officer to ever serve in Congress.
Speaking to the North America's Building Trades Unions conference in April, Walz said: "In my first campaign for Congress, in a debate, my opponent came at me and said, 'Tim is in the pocket of organized labor,' and I popped back up and said: 'That is a damn lie! I am the pocket!'”