Why Kamala Picking Tim Walz as Her V.P. Is Actually Historic

Kamala Harris tapped Minnesota Governor Tim Walz Tuesday to join her presidential ticket, which may make way for a historic first.

Should Harris and Walz win in November, prompting Walz to step down from the governorship, Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, a citizen of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, would take his place. That means that Flanagan would become the first Native American woman to serve as a U.S. governor, as well as Minnesota’s first female governor.

Flanagan has served as Minnesota’s lieutenant governor since 2018, making her the highest-ranking Native American elected to executive office, according to her official bio.

Walz is not required to leave his office to become Harris’s running mate, and could choose to stay in the office up until the moment he is sworn into the White House. Walz, who was elected for his second term as governor in 2022, has two years left in his term.

Flanagan was first elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2015, where she served on the Subcommittee on Child Care Access and Affordability, and formed the state’s first People of Color and Indigenous Caucus.

After Flanagan was elected lieutenant governor alongside Walz in 2018, the two pushed for the highest child tax credit in the country, which Walz signed into law. The Minnesota Department of Revenue reported that the child tax credit was claimed on more than 215,000 tax returns in 2023, serving nearly 440,000 children for an average total credit of $1,244 per child.

Donald Trump is trying desperately to start a new nickname for Vice President Kamala Harris, and his latest attempt is the most pathetic one yet.

“People vote with their STOMACH, and food is now at an all time high because of Kamabla/Biden INCOMPETENCE. With them in charge, IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social Monday night.

That’s right, “Kamabla.” What would be considered a typo from any other politician appeared in four of the former president’s posts over the course of Monday night.

“Kamabla Harris is afraid to Debate me on FoxNews. She will be easier to defeat on the Debate Stage than Crooked Joe Biden, just watch,” he wrote in another post on Truth Social, referring to his outlandish pitch for an arena debate, so he could get out of one he’d previously agreed to on ABC News.

Earlier Monday, Trump had tried to blame Harris for the stock market’s dip, calling it the “KAMALA CRASH,” across several different posts—but to no avail.

It seems that Trump’s previous nicknames for Harris, including “Laughing Kamala,” “Crazy Kamala,” “Lyin’ Kamala,” and even “Dumb as a Rock Kamala,” were actually perhaps too heady for the former president. He’d rather just misspell her name and call it a day.

Last week, during an appearance on Fox News after Trump’s disastrous appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists, Trump’s former adviser Omarosa Manigault Newman criticized Trump for mispronouncing Harris’s name “as a slur.”

“He does it intentionally to harm her, to make people see the otherness of Kamala Harris,” Newman said.

Trump’s new nickname for his opponent, along with all of his previous attempts, shows that his campaign is drowning in his own rage. Unfortunately for Trump, his particular brand of vitriol only appeals to his base—and even they seem like they’re beginning to defect.

Kamala Harris has chosen her running mate, and it’s Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

Harris announced the decision Tuesday morning. “As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he’s delivered for working families like his,” she stated. “It’s great to have him on the team.”

It’s a fun announcement, given both Walz’s progressive credentials and how savvy he is with his attacks on Republicans. He has effectively criticized Donald Trump and J.D. Vance in TV interviews, even venturing into enemy territory on Fox News. And he’s credited with first inspiring Democrats’ “weird” attacks on Trump and the GOP, giving the party one of its most effective attack lines in years.

Walz’s internet presence has also led his supporters to turn him into incredible meme content.

He may even be a bigger Diet Mountain Dew fan than Vance.

So who is Walz?

As governor of Minnesota, Walz was in office when George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police in May 2020. He signed into law police reform legislation banning “warrior” training, restricting the use of choke holds by police, and introducing new de-escalation training for police as well as training on how to respond to people with autism and mental health issues. The bill also created an independent unit to investigate police-involved deaths and a community relations advisory council.

Last year, Walz signed into law a child tax credit plan for Minnesota, one of the most generous state plans in the country, which he said could reduce child poverty in the state by 33 percent. It was passed thanks to Walz presiding over a Democratic trifecta, with the party holding both the Minnesota House and Senate. This also allowed abortion protections, free universal school meals, paid family leave, and safeguards for gay and transgender people to become law in the state.

Before becoming governor, he served in Congress from 2007 to 2019, endearing himself to his Democratic colleagues. Several Democrats in Congress, including Nancy Pelosi, have spoken well of Walz in recent days.

“He was a great member of Congress. The people I know in Minnesota tell me he’s a great governor.… But more importantly, he’s a good guy,” said Representative Jim McGovern last week. “He’s down to earth, he’s the real deal, there’s nothing phony about him, and he calls ’em as he sees ’em, and he tells it like it is, and I appreciate the candor.”

In the past year, Walz has taken a relatively conciliatory approach to voters and protesters upset over Israel’s brutal war on Gaza, even with his record of pro-Israel advocacy in Congress.

“These are voters that are deeply concerned—as we all are. The situation in Gaza is intolerable.… We start bringing these folks back in, we listen to what they’re saying—that’s a healthy thing,” Walz said. On the campus protests, he said students “need to be able to express opinions” but also expressed concern for the safety of Jewish students on campus.

Walz’s personal story is also compelling. He grew up in rural Nebraska and served in the National Guard for 24 years, and was deployed to Europe after 9/11. He earned several commendations, including the Army Commendation Medal and two Army Achievement Medals. With a bachelor’s degree from Chadron State College in Nebraska, he taught for one year in China and later was a public school teacher in Alliance, Nebraska, and then in Mankato, Minnesota, his wife Gwen’s hometown.

While teaching geography in Mankato West High School, he served as the school football coach, taking the team to its first state championship in 1999. He also was the faculty adviser for the school’s first gay-straight alliance.

It looks like the Harris campaign recognized all of these achievements, and saw Walz as the best choice to win in November.

This story has been updated.

Elon Musk’s pro-Trump political action committee is in hot water after the North Carolina attorney general’s office announced Monday that it is looking into the group’s collection of personal data.

A complaint was made to the state election board claiming that Musk’s America PAC collected personal data instead of its promised goal of helping people register to vote. Specifically, the PAC asked website users for data such as their ZIP code, address, and a phone number in order to help them register to vote. But if the person lived in a battleground state, they were never actually registered to vote. Only those who lived in states not considered competitive were redirected to their state’s voter registration pages.

“Our office is aware of this issue and is looking into it,” said a spokesperson for the North Carolina attorney general’s office Monday. North Carolina’s inquiry follows another investigation announced Sunday by Michigan’s secretary of state over identical allegations involving Michigan residents.

“Every citizen should know exactly how their personal information is being used by PACs, especially if an entity is claiming it will help people register to vote in Michigan or any other state,” a spokesperson for the Michigan office said in a statement to CNBC.

“While the America PAC is a federal political action committee, the Department is reviewing their activities to determine if there have been any violations of state law. We will refer potential violations to the Michigan Attorney General’s office as appropriate,” the statement added.

Along with North Carolina and Michigan, users in Georgia and Wisconsin who accessed the PAC’s website also weren’t redirected to their states’ voter registration pages.

Musk and his PAC are supporting Donald Trump in the 2024 election over Vice President Kamala Harris, with the tech mogul reportedly feeling slighted after President Biden didn’t invite Tesla, Musk’s car company, to a 2021 electric vehicles summit. Musk has been pro-Trump ever since then, advocating for Trump’s anti-immigration policies in line with his own conspiracist beliefs in the racist “great replacement theory,” which claims immigrants are being imported to replace white people. Musk is an immigrant to the United States.

Donald Trump is determined to blame Monday’s stock market dip on Kamala Harris, even if that means having a meltdown posting a dumb new nickname for her over and over again.

On Monday, Wall Street had its worst day in nearly two years, as the S&P 500 fell 3 percent and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped over 1,000 points. As markets plunged, Trump began insistently posting on Truth Social, deeming the poor market performance a “KAMALA CRASH!” or “KAMALA KRASH.”

“STOCK MARKETS CRASHING. I TOLD YOU SO!!!” wrote the former president and convicted felon. “KAMALA DOESN’T HAVE A CLUE. BIDEN IS SOUND ASLEEP. ALL CAUSED BY INEPT U.S. LEADERSHIP!”

In reality, there’s no way that the poor performance of the stock market can be placed squarely on Biden or Harris. There seem to be plenty of reasons for the crash, including a disappointing jobs report and concern that the Federal Reserve didn’t lower interest rates fast enough. Some are blaming the Bank of Japan hiking interest rates, while still others are blaming the hasty move to invest in artificial intelligence and other technologies without proof of their value. But many economic experts say that the U.S economy remains strong.

“Of course there is a massive market downturn. Kamala is even worse than Crooked Joe. Markets will NEVER accept the Radical Left Lunatic that DESTROYED San Francisco and California, as a whole,” wrote Trump on Truth Social, whose value has also been tanking. “Next move, THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF 2024! You can’t play games with MARKETS. KAMALA CRASH!!!”

Under President Joe Biden, real wages have rebounded since the pandemic and overall job growth has improved greatly. In June, 16 Nobel Prize–winning economists warned that reelecting Trump would reignite inflation.

But perhaps Trump’s meltdown isn’t about the economy at all, and instead is just a failed attempt to get a derogatory nickname for Harris to stick.