When Kamala Harris apparently made history in March during her visit to a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Paul, she was just the vice president.
And Tim Walz, who accompanied Harris during her tour through one of the state’s only stand-alone abortion facilities, was just a governor.
But just four months later—and less than 100 days until the Nov. 8 presidential election—there’s a serious national conversation happening among politicos and Democrat brass about the possibility of Harris tapping Walz to be her running mate for the White House. Walz was reportedly among three finalists who were set to be interviewed by Harris at her D.C. residence Sunday.
Walz, a two-term governor and chair of the Democratic Governors Association, has been stumping for Harris on the daily ever since President Joe Biden announced on July 21 that he would not seek re-election and threw his support to Harris as his successor.
Were seeds for the potential top-of-ticket pairing sewn right then and there at that March 14 tour of the abortion clinic in St. Paul, just down the road from the current governor’s residence?
Walz hasn’t shied away from retelling the significance that moment held for him in recent days as he has played the role of loyal surrogate to the latest Democratic nominee for president.
The day after Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris, Walz was interviewed live on CNN where he articulated his support for Harris and intimated he wouldn’t turn down any opportunity Harris presented to him to aid her campaign. Walz described a phone conversation he had with Harris earlier that day to ask for his support.
“She said ‘I’m gonna earn this governor, we’re gonna work together,’” Walz told CNN’s Erin Burnett. “I’m really proud, because not too long ago she became the first vice president or president to stand inside a Planned Parenthood clinic when she came to visit (St. Paul).”
Four months prior, during Harris’s tour of the St. Paul abortion facility, Walz—who just a year earlier signed one of the nation’s most far-reaching abortion laws in the nation—stood stoically behind the vice president as she spoke to the importance of the visit.
“So I am here to highlight that of the many, I believe, potentially intended consequences of the Dobbs decision, one of them has been for healthcare providers such as this in the states that have banned or outlawed access to reproductive care, clinics like this to shut down; and it’s a travesty,” Harris said.
While Walz never took a turn addressing the media during the press conference, he did briefly echo his support of Harris’s comment “that one does not have to abandon their faith, or deeply held beliefs, to agree that the government should not be telling women what to do with their body.”
“That’s right,” Walz said.
Pro-life groups say Walz signed one of the most extreme abortion laws in nation
Opponents of the sweeping abortion bill that Walz and the DFL-controlled legislature made law in 2023 said the vice president’s visit “shows the Biden administration’s full-blown devotion to extreme abortion policies.”
“Minnesota is an outlier after enacting an abortion-up-to-birth law and abolishing a program that supported pregnant women,” said Cathy Blaeser, co-executive director for Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life. “That’s why Vice President Harris came here. But unlimited abortion harms women and children. Most Minnesotans don’t want what Harris, Biden, and DFL lawmakers are selling.”
As recently as 2022, two polls conducted by KSTP and the Star Tribune both showed only 30 percent of Minnesotans prefer abortion without any limits, the state’s current policy under the “PRO Act” that Walz signed into law last year.
Walz falsely accused Trump of supporting national abortion ban
Shortly after Harris’s whistle-stop appearance in St. Paul—where she was joined by DFL Congresswoman Betty McCollum and Mayor Melvin Carter—Walz then took to the cable television circuit where he amplified the importance of Harris’s tour of the abortion clinic. Just a few days before Biden suspended his campaign, McCollum made headlines when she called on Biden to drop out of the race and endorsed Harris for president and Walz as her vice presidential running mate.
When CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins asked Walz in March if President Joe Biden, “an 81-year-old Catholic,” should use the word “abortion” more frequently on the campaign trail, Walz replied, “Well, you’re right.”
“I think old white men need to learn how to talk about this a little more,” Walz said. “And I think the biggest thing is to listen to women, listen to what they are saying … (Biden’s) vice president is making history by being the first president or vice president to stand in a space that’s a health care clinic. Abortion is healthcare … It’s a moment we should seize and, look, the contrast could not be greater.”
Walz then lit into Biden’s Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, critiquing his golf game, mocking his fitness and falsely alleging that Trump was campaigning to ban abortion nationwide.
“I think the president’s out there making it clear, and the contrast is he said he will sign into law, codifying Roe into law,” Walz told Collins. “Donald Trump says he would make the ban nationwide. You couldn’t be clearer.”
Just two weeks after Walz’s allegation that Trump was pushing for a national abortion ban, Trump made it clear in a video statement he posted on social media that he believes abortion limits should be left to the states. He’s since repeated that statement numerous times on the campaign trail, including during his June 27 televised debate with Biden.
Hank Long
Hank Long is a journalism and communications professional whose writing career includes coverage of the Minnesota legislature, city and county governments and the commercial real estate industry. Hank received his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, where he studied journalism, and his law degree at the University of St. Thomas. The Minnesota native lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and four children. His dream is to be around when the Vikings win the Super Bowl.
