Gender Equality Isn’t Just a Women’s Issue. Tim Walz Knows That.
The vice presidential candidate is a plain-speaking Midwesterner—whose experiences mean he has prioritized policies traditionally classed as “women’s issues”.
In the span of a week, Tim Walz, Kamala Harris's running mate, has gone from a relative unknown (as my editor points out, relative being a relative term, here—Hi FD!) to something of a folk hero. He's the potential vice president much of America didn’t know it needed.
Harris announced the 60-year-old Minnesota governor as her VP pick last week. Within hours, the puzzle pieces about who this guy was were falling into place: This was the man who—following the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Fla.—donated $18,000 of NRA donations he'd received to a charity supporting families of troops killed or injured while serving. His NRA rating (yes, friends outside the U.S., that's a thing) dropped from an A to an F. He was the governor who dedicated a highway to the artist (formerly known as) Prince, signing the bill in purple ink. And yes, he was the person behind the word “weird” lobbed at the Trump/Vance ticket during a Morning Joe interview, which got the attention of Gen Z voters—and stuck.
