Timothy James Walz is an American politician, former schoolteacher, and retired U.S. Army non-commissioned officer who has served as the 41st governor of Minnesota since 2019. He is the Democratic Party's nominee for vice president in the 2024 United States presidential election. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2019, and was the ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee from 2017 to 2019.
Walz was born in West Point, Nebraska. After high school, he joined the Army National Guard and worked in a factory. He later graduated from Chadron State College in Nebraska before moving to Minnesota in 1996. Before running for Congress, he was a high school social studies teacher and football coach. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Minnesota's 1st congressional district in 2006, defeating six-term Republican incumbent Gil Gutknecht.
Walz was reelected to the House five times before being elected governor of Minnesota in 2018 and reelected in 2022. During his second gubernatorial term, he pushed for and signed a wide range of legislation, including tax modifications, free school meals, bolstering state infrastructure, universal gun background checks, codifying abortion rights, and free college tuition for low-income families.
On August 6, 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris announced Walz as her running mate in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
