Kamala Harris picks left-wing stalwart Tim Walz as running mate; choice favored by the far-left

Kamala Harris has picked the staunchly progressive governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, as her running mate. Harris, the Democratic Party’s Presidential nominee, chose Walz over Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who is not as far to the left as Walz.

As a Minnesota think-tank president notes, “Walz has a terrible record as governor….Under Walz, Minnesota became a high-crime state for the first time ever….Under Walz, student achievement tumbled even as spending on schools skyrocketed….Under Walz, per capita GDP in Minnesota fell below the national average, for the first time ever…Under Walz, increases in energy costs have far outstripped the national average.”

Walz dramatically increased government spending in Minnesota, kept taxes high, and ran up one of the worst fiscal records in America. “I gave Tim Walz an ‘F’ on the 2022 Cato Governors Report Card. Big taxer and spender,” says economist Chris Edwards.

“The last time Harris and Walz teamed up was when he allowed rioters to burn down half of Minneapolis and then she raised money to bail them out,” says AG Hamilton.

Dustin Grage links to video of a devastated section of Minneapolis that burned when Walz failed to stem riots for days, riots that Walz viewed sympathetically as a response to a lack of “diversity and inclusion.” “No, this is not a video from a war-torn country in the Middle East. This is the aftermath of the Minneapolis Riots when Minnesota Governor Tim Walz allowed it to burn four consecutive nights. This is the legacy of Kamala Harris’s new running mate,” Grage says.

Erick Erickson said, “Tim Walz refused to add state police resources to quell progressive rioters. He closed churches during COVID and reopened bars but refused to reopen churches. He taxes retiree social security income. He attempted an income tax hike during COVID. He kept kids locked out of public schools. Under Walz, the murder rate in Minnesota jumped over 50%.”

Some Democratic officials privately favored Walz over Shapiro because they thought Shapiro’s Jewishness would make it harder for left-wing Democratic activists to vote for him (The Israel-Gaza war has caused divisions among Democrats and an explosion of antisemitism on college campuses and among left-wing Democrats). Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres noted that the “antisemitic far left” within the Democratic Party was working to block the selection of Josh Shapiro. “Josh Shapiro had too much baggage to be the Dem VP nominee and that baggage was being Jewish,” says journalist Karol Markowicz.

Some Democrats think picking someone as left-wing as Walz could reduce the Democrats chances of winning the 2024 election. “Rather than pick the very popular governor of a neck-and-neck must-win purple state [Shapiro], Harris chose a dime-a-dozen blue-state governor who gives feels to progressives [Walz]. That’s about what I’d have expected from her a month ago,” says the moderately liberal think-tank scholar Damon Linker.

“Veep choice seems unfortunate for what it signals about kowtowing to left wing and viciously anti-Semitic wings of the party and for weakening chance to win PA,” lamented an anti-Trump lawyer.

The Washington Post’s Megan McArdle, who previously voted for Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton without enthusiasm, expressed skepticism about picking Walz, saying, “He has governed Minnesota, a state [Harris] will win handily, as a progressive, which is why progressives have been pushing for him over Shapiro.”

Minnesota’s high taxes and growing number of restrictions on residents under Walz have driven thousands of residents to other states, like Florida, that have lower taxes and less red tape. “Minnesota has lost more residents to Florida than any other state in the country,” notes Grage.

Tim Walz seems sympathetic to socialism. Last week, he said, “One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.” Harris was urged to pick Walz by members of the Democratic Party’s left-wing, such as Senator Bernie Sanders, a self-described socialist.

Economist Chris Edwards notes that Tim Walz likes to raise taxes even when there is no need to do so, such as when he inherited a budget surplus from his precedessor: “In Walz’s first year in office, Minnesota was projected to have large budget surpluses. Walz planned to spend the money and increase taxes to fund even more spending. Walz’s budget for 2020 ‘would add $2 billion more in new spending, and taxes would increase by $1.3 billion to pay for it, with the rest of the money coming from an existing surplus.’ But Walz compromised with the legislature, and the final tax increase passed that year was about $330 million annually.”

Progressive activist “Van Jones admits that Kamala” Harris “picking Walz” rather than Shapiro “was her ‘caving in to some of these darker parts in the party’ in terms of appeasing ‘anti-Jewish bigots’ that have ‘gotten marbled into this party.’”