After Minnesota Democrats defied midterm expectations and won narrow control of state government, it took Gov. Tim Walz about a month to pass one of the country’s biggest climate laws.
Then, a few months later, he did it again.
“It’s not about banking political capital for the next election,” Walz said at the close of the 2023 Legislature, after wielding a one-vote majority to pass stronger climate policies than many solidly Democratic states. “It’s about burning political capital to improve lives.”
Now, as Vice President Kamala Harris, the likely Democratic nominee for president, considers Walz as a potential running mate, the governor’s supporters say his climate record shows what Walz could bring to the ticket. He is a former small-town teacher whose style of approachable progressivism resonates beyond the Democratic base — with the receipts, like his climate laws, to prove it.
