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Elon Musk’s New Lawsuit Proves He’s a Whiny Little Baby

Musk is basically having a tantrum that advertisers fled the dumpster fire he turned Twitter into.

Elon Musk scratches his head at an event
Apu Gomes/Getty Images

Elon Musk is hoping to scare advertisers into returning to X (formerly Twitter) by suing a group of advertisers who he claims concocted a plan to cost his social media company billions of dollars.

The billionaire technocrat filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, or GARM, a coalition of advertisers, media agencies, and platforms that focus on safety in media and technology, accusing them of coordinating a campaign to stop working with him. The lawsuit also targets the World Federation of Advertisers, which oversees GARM, and four of its members: CVS Health, Mars, Unilever, and Orsted.

Ever since Musk took over as the owner of X, bringing with him a rise of antisemitism and hate speech on the social media platform, advertisers have fled en masse. In November, shortly after Musk promoted a neo-Nazi talking point, Media Matters published a report saying that X had been placing ads for brands including Apple, Bravo, IBM, Oracle, and Xfinity next to posts promoting Hitler and Nazi beliefs.

After Musk levied a profanity-laced tirade against advertisers for leaving him, he continued to elevate hate speech on X. In May, he invited neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes back to the platform after he’d been banned.

As a result, X’s revenue has taken a dive. X earned $114 million in the United States in its second quarter, a 25 percent decline from its first quarter and a 53 percent decline from the same period last year, according to documents obtained by The New York Times.

But Musk claims it wasn’t his own support of hate speech that scared advertisers away. He thinks GARM is responsible.

In the nearly two years since Musk took over, 18 companies represented by GARM stopped advertising on the platform altogether, while dozens more shrank their spending by 70 percent, according to the lawsuit. Even as X dropped the prices of its ad spots to lure advertisers back, none returned. Musk’s lawsuit argues that advertisers’ failure to come crawling back constitutes an antitrust violation.

“By refraining from purchasing advertising from X, boycotting advertisers are forgoing a valuable opportunity to purchase low-priced advertising inventory on a platform with brand safety that meets or exceeds industry standards,” the lawsuit said.

In an open letter posted by X CEO Linda Yaccarino, she cited a report published in June by the House Judiciary Committee, titled “GARM’s Harm.”

“Evidence obtained by the Committee shows that GARM and its members directly organized boycotts and used other indirect tactics to target disfavored platforms, content creators, and news organizations in an effort to demonetize and, in effect, limit certain choices for consumers,” the report said.

“To put it simply, people are hurt when the marketplace of ideas is undermined and some viewpoints are not funded over others as part of an illegal boycott,” Yaccarino wrote in her letter, before accusing the defendants of cheating X out of billions of dollars.

It seems that other platforms were inspired by Musk’s war on advertisers. Rumble, a right-wing video-sharing platform, signed onto Musk’s lawsuit.

“I strongly encourage any company who has been systematically boycotted by advertisers to file a lawsuit,” Musk wrote Tuesday X. “There may also be criminal liability via the RICO Act.”

Ruben Schreurs, the chief strategy officer at Ebiquity, a marketing and media consulting firm, told The New York Times that to advertisers, Musk’s claims sound “so far-fetched and frankly ridiculous.”

“To the extent that Elon hadn’t already burned all bridges and ties with the entire advertising community, I don’t see how this will get any advertisers to come back to X,” Schruers said. “It’s a last-ditch effort to force brands who don’t want to be in the cross hairs of this kind of legal action to return to the platform.”

While one might think that you can’t actually sue someone for not wanting to work with you, it doesn’t mean that Musk won’t try.

Kamala’s V.P. Pick Sparks Major Endorsements That Should Scare Trump

Kamala Harris choosing Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate has triggered an outpouring of support from labor unions.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz smiles
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Organized labor is giving a resounding thumbs-up to Kamala Harris’s vice presidential pick.

Following Harris’s announcement Tuesday that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz would be her running mate, union endorsements poured in one by one.

The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, or AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions, announced its support of Walz. “By selecting Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, Kamala Harris chose a principled fighter and labor champion who will stand up for working people and strengthen this historic ticket,” said Liz Shuler, president of AFL-CIO.

Another exciting endorsement came from the United Auto Workers, which had initially taken longer to endorse Harris. “Tim Walz has been a great governor and is going to make a great vice-president. He’s stood with the working class every step of the way, and has walked the walk, including on a UAW picket line last fall,” said UAW President Shawn Fain, who leads nearly 400,000 active members, including more than 100,000 in the swing state of Michigan.

Twitter screenshot UAW @UAW:
Tim Walz doesn’t just talk the talk, he walks the walk. From delivering for working-class Americans to standing with the UAW on our picket line last year, we know which side he’s on. That’s why we’re going to send @KamalaHarris and @Tim_Walz to the White House this November.

(photo of Tim Walz speaking to striking UAW workers)

10:03 AM August 6, 2024 410.8K Views

Other unions also celebrated Walz’s pick, including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME, the National Education Association, or NEA, and the American Federation of Teachers, or AFT, with their union president, Randi Weingarten, writing that the “AFT’s 1.8 million members will stand with Walz and Harris over the next 12 weeks as they campaign to realize the promise and potential of America.” Union leader Sara Nelson of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, or AFA, also chimed in, writing that Walz is “in touch with the country and what we need to win.”

Prior to Harris’s announcement, more than two dozen labor leaders in Minnesota sent a letter to Harris asking her to pick Walz as her running mate. 

In his time as governor, Walz fought for Minnesota workers, passing paid sick leave, parental leave, and protections from noncompete agreements and anti-union meetings. He also passed the “nation’s strongest set of protections against wage theft.”

Before working in politics, Walz was a social studies teacher and union member.

J.D. Vance’s Reaction to Kamala’s V.P. Pick Proves He’s Panicking

Donald Trump’s running mate is desperate to find a line of attack that will stick against Kamala Harris’s pick for vice president, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

J.D. Vance looks downcast
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance is desperately trying to find a line of attack after Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s addition to the Democratic presidential ticket. And all he’s come up with so far is that Kamala Harris is caving “to the Hamas wing of her own party.”

Vance made the remarks after his flight landed in Philadelphia Tuesday morning, where he later spoke at a rally for the Trump campaign.

“Many, many people said repeatedly that the reason Kamala Harris was going away from the Josh Shapiro selection is because they were worried about antisemitism,” Vance said on the plane. “They were worried about certain voters; they were worried about some of the leaders and the grassroots activists in their party wouldn’t take a Jewish nominee.

“I think it’s despicable. I think it’s disgusting. But that is right out of the words of many members of the Democratic leadership, and so now we have Tim Walz,” Vance added.

Later, at a press conference in the city of brotherly love, Vance again claimed that Harris and the Democrats were motivated by prejudice by not choosing Shapiro.

“I genuinely feel bad that for days, maybe even weeks, the guy actually had to run away from his Jewish heritage because of what the Democrats are saying about him. I think that’s scandalous and disgraceful,” Vance said. “Whatever disagreements on policy you have about somebody, the fact that that race, the vice presidential race on the Democratic side, became so focused on his ethnicity, I think is absolutely disgraceful.”

Vance’s comments seem to be piggybacking on attacks on Walz from earlier on Tuesday. Several Republicans, including Senator Tom Cotton, called the decision to choose Walz over Shapiro antisemtic. Even before the Harris campaign made the announcement, Vance claimed that Democrats’ overlooking Shapiro would be due to antisemitism.

If this is what Republicans think will work, it’s kind of a joke. Neither Vance nor Trump are Jewish, and of the 33 Jewish members of Congress, only two in the House are Republicans, with zero Jewish Republican senators. Harris’s husband, Douglas Emhoff, as well as her two stepchildren, are Jewish.

This attack certainly won’t stop people from calling Vance and Trump weird, especially since the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, also happens to be Jewish, which he pointed out on X in response to these attacks.

Tweet screenshot Chuck Schumer @SenSchumer News to me Quote tweet from Erick Erickson @EWErickson: No Jews allowed at the top of the Democratic Party.

Meanwhile, Trump isn’t making any campaign appearances until Friday, when he’s scheduled to speak in Montana, while the Harris campaign’s schedule is packed with battleground states with only Vance making similar stops. And that isn’t the only way the Trump campaign is trailing Harris’s, aside from the polls: Vance tried to call Walz earlier Tuesday morning, but only got his voicemail.

Trump’s Latest Attack on Kamala’s V.P. Pick Hilariously Backfires

Did Donald Trump just say he shouldn’t be allowed to vote?

Donald Trump speaks into a microphone at a campaign rally
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Donald Trump’s campaign is taking aim at Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for backing a policy that gives convicted felons the right to vote, conveniently forgetting that their candidate is also a convicted felon.

Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt released a statement Tuesday decrying Vice President Kamala Harris’s selection of “Radical Leftist Tim Walz” as her running mate.

Leavitt criticized Walz for “embracing policies to allow convicted felons to vote,” as part of his obsession “with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide.”

As Minnesota governor, Walz signed a bill in June 2023 restoring the right to vote to more than 50,000 Minnesotans on parole, probation, or community release due to a felony conviction.

Despite Leavitt’s griping, Trump himself is the beneficiary of a policy allowing convicted felons to vote.

Trump is currently still eligible to vote in Florida, where he is registered, because Florida election law says that he has that right so long as he is able to vote in the state where he was convicted. In New York state, a person is only disenfranchised while incarcerated, so unless Trump is sentenced to prison in his New York hush-money trial, he can still vote, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

In an astounding feat of doublethink, Team Trump seems to want voters to be angry that convicted felons can vote, while simultaneously hoping that they’ll vote for a convicted felon—and that said convicted felon can vote for himself come November.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders Immediately Trolled After Attack on Tim Walz

The Arkansas governor got an awkward photo reminder after attempting to smear Kamala Harris’s pick for vice president, Tim Walz.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaking
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Images

After Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was chosen as Kamala Harris’s running mate, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders immediately attacked him—only to get trolled by the internet.

“In her first big decision Kamala reveals who she answers to—the far left,” Sanders posted on X (formerly Twitter) Tuesday morning. The replies to her tweet quickly called her out.

Twitter screenshot Robert Komaniecki @Komaniecki_R: Ratioed by a picture of an overjoyed Tim Walz holding a contented piglet at the MN State Fair (photo of Walz holding a happy piglet)
Twitter screenshot Aaron Meyers @AaronMeyers: The "far left" here in the US is feeding kids and economic growth. What a crazy radical. 11:10 AM · Aug 6, 2024 · 4,214 Views

Several commentators pointed out the contrast between their records as governors—Sanders loosened child labor protections while Walz made school lunches free. Even their photo ops with children show disappointment versus happiness.

Twitter screenshot Paddy Philanthropous @aglovesupreme19: Modern Republicans are creepy and weird. No one likes you except for angry losers photo of Sarah Huckabee sanders smiling as she signed legislation, kids around her looking grim and wearing formal clothes photo of Tim Walz laughing as kids surround him smiling and hugging him.He just signed a piece of legislation, as seen on the desk before him.
Twitter screenshot Will Watson @will_watson: Tim Walz got every kid in his state school lunch; you loosened child labor laws. I’d sit this one out. 9:35 AM August 6, 2024 3,579 Views


Others pointed out the absurdity of calling Walz “far left”—as if that attack line would work on a military veteran, high school football coach, and teacher.

Twitter screenshot Dave Zirin @EdgeofSports: The forever divide in US politics between families who love dogs and families who torture them. (quote tweet of Sarah Huckabee Sanders) 10:38 AM August 6, 2024
Twitter screenshot Lee Germaine @LeeSovaClaypool: yes very good idea to make Walz — Midwestern dad, churchgoing veteran, hunter, high school teacher and football coach — the new face of the radical far left let’s see how that plays out (quote tweet of Sarah Huckabee Sanders) 10:12 AM August 6, 2024 4,508 Views


These early attacks, along with a panicked angry email from the Trump campaign, show that the GOP doesn’t have much of an attack line against Walz right now. It’s fitting that the man who coined the Democrats’ favorite “weird” criticism of Republicans isn’t easily attacked himself. On top of that, Trump and Republicans still haven’t come up with a good way to attack Harris. The only question is whether all of this will lead to Democrats retaining the White House in November.

Republicans Desperate to Blame “Antisemitism” for Kamala’s V.P. Pick

Donald Trump’s allies have an idiotic conspiracy theory for why Kamala Harris picked Tim Walz.

Kamala Harris’s running mate Tim Walz is seen from the side
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Conservatives have begun claiming that it was antisemitic for Kamala Harris to tap Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to be her running mate on Tuesday, instead of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. But when examining Walz’s actual record on Israel, their phony meltdown doesn’t quite ring true.

It seems that Republicans are hoping to push the narrative that Walz was selected over Shapiro because Shapiro is Jewish.

“Let’s be clear: Kamala didn’t *cave* to the antisemitic, pro-Hamas wing of the Democratic Party. She *belongs* to the pro-Hamas wing of the Democratic party,” wrote violently pro-Israel Republican Senator Tom Cotton in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Conservative radio talk show host Dana Loesch claimed that picking Walz over Shapiro was done to “not upset their anti-Jewish voters who carry a lot of influence in their party now.”

Fox Business correspondent Charles Gasparino seemingly couldn’t believe that Harris had selected Walz. “Unless @JoshShapiroPA was caught in bed w a live boy or dead girl this VP choice tells you something scary about the Dem Party and antisemitism pure and simple,” Gasparino wrote in a post on X.

Before Walz was even announced, Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance claimed that if Harris didn’t pick Shapiro, it would be “out of anti-Semitism in their own caucus and in their own party.”

Republican commentator Eric Erickson wrote simply, “No Jews allowed at the top of the Democratic Party.” Of course, of the 35 Jewish members of the current Congress, only two are Republican. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is also Jewish.

Like Erickson’s hollow critique, this conservative meltdown is completely made up: For a pick determined by so-called antisemitism, Walz’s appointment has already received significant support from pro-Israel groups.

As soon as Harris’s decision was announced Tuesday morning, the Democratic Majority for Israel released a statement expressing its support for Walz, and lauding the moderate Democrat for his record on Israel.

“As governor, he has been a steadfast supporter of the pro-Israel movement in Minnesota,” the statement said. “In the wake of Hamas’ barbaric October 7th attacks, Governor Walz ordered state flags to be flown at half-mast and condemned the ‘horrific attacks on Israel by Hamas,’ and, at a vigil for the victims, asked anyone who did not immediately condemn the assault to ‘reevaluate where you’re at.’”

The group highlighted Walz’s support of U.S.-backed military aid to Israel and work to increase Holocaust education in Minnesota. When speaking at an AIPAC conference in 2010, Walz called Israel “our truest and closest ally in the region, with a commitment to values of personal freedoms and liberties, surrounded by a pretty tough neighborhood.”

J Street, the liberal pro-Israel lobby also released a statement supporting Walz, obtained by Forward. “We know the Harris-Walz team will stand up for our shared values, protect our community, and pursue smart, pro-Israel, pro-peace leadership abroad. We’re all in,” said the group, which had previously endorsed Walz.

Recently, Walz has presented a more nuanced stance on Israel. During the primaries, he said that those who voted “uncommitted” to protest President Joe Biden’s support for Israel in its catastrophic military campaign in Gaza were “civically engaged.”

“People are frustrated, but it bodes well, for me, that they’re actively engaged to go out and cast this vote and ask for change,” Walz said at the time.

As pro-Palestinian protests spread across the country, Walz said that students “need to be able to express opinions,” and that included Jewish students as well. “When Jewish students are telling us they feel unsafe, we need to believe them, and I do believe them,” he said.

Walz’s apparent open-mindedness and more moderate position came in sharp relief to Shapiro, who has been egregiously bad on Palestine. As former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on CNN Monday night, dismissing Shapiro had little to do with antisemitism.

“I think it’s probably more about policy,” she said.

Trump Is Already Losing It Over Kamala Choosing Tim Walz as V.P.

Donald Trump is pissed about Kamala Harris’s choice for running mate.

Donald Trump yelling, brows furrowed
Scott Olson/Getty Images

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has only just been named as Kamala Harris’s running mate, but Donald Trump is already mad.

The Republican presidential nominee and convicted felon’s campaign immediately fired off a fundraising email Tuesday morning with some over-the-top but unspecific attacks, with an insane subject line not likely to gain traction beyond the MAGA faithful.

Twitter screenshot Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp This shows one of the advantages of the Walz pick. Literally no one outside the GOP bubble believes this milquetoast Midwestern guy is the avatar of American carnage

The email continued along the same lines.

“He’ll unleash HELL ON EARTH and open our borders to the worst criminals imaginable,” the email read. “He’ll rubber stamp Kamla’s [sic] GREEN NEW SCAM and light TRILLIONS of dollars on fire. But the real killer: he’s already pulled in MILLIONS in dirty cash to buy the White House!”

Twitter screenshot Philip Bump @pbump: Gee, I wonder if Trump had the same fundraising email ready to go with other names? (with a screenshot of the fundraising email)

As The Washington Post’s Philip Bump noted, Trump probably had this email ready to go with an empty space for Walz’s name. The attacks on Walz could have been used against any generic Democrat (except perhaps Joe Manchin). But Trump and the GOP now have the difficult task of taking on the Democrat who coined the very effective “weird’ attacks against them. And compared to J.D. Vance, Walz is likeable, a great communicator, and has a compelling story.

We’ll have to see in the coming days whether Republicans and Trump will have any effective attacks against Walz, but if their flailing attacks on Harris are any indication, they may not have anything good.

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

Tim Walz leaving the Minnesota governor’s office means Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan will take over.

Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan and Governor Tim Walz stand in front of a stretch of highway renamed after Prince
Alex Kormann/Star Tribune/Getty Images
Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan and Governor Tim Walz celebrate the musician Prince.

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.

Trump’s New Nickname for Kamala Shows How Desperate He Is

Donald Trump appears to be throwing everything at the wall in the hope that something will stick.

Donald Trump holds his arms out as he speaks at a campaign rally
Hannah Beier/Bloomberg/Getty Images

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.

Who Is Tim Walz? The Man Who Memed His Way Into Becoming Kamala’s V.P.

Kamala Harris has announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her pick for vice president.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz smiles broadly. Another man stands nearby.
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

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.”

Twitter screenshot Kamala Harris @KamalaHarris: I am proud to announce that I've asked @Tim_Walz to be my running mate. As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he's delivered for working families like his. It's great to have him on the team. Now let’s get to work. Join us: (link to Harriz Walz Donate to support the Harris-Walz campaign! From secure.actblue.com) 10:24 AM August 6, 2024

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.

Twitter screenshot Walz War Room @WalzWarRoom: Proposed slogan for Harris- Walz ticket “We aren’t going back- these guys are weird” 9:07 AM · Jul 26, 2024 · 15K Views

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.

Twitter screenshot Sam Brodey @sambrodey: The thing about a potential Vance-Walz matchup is that it would be a clash of Diet Mountain Dew guys and I'm not sure anyone likes Diet Mountain Dew more than Tim Walz I mean look at this (and multiple screenshots of Walz either talking about Mountain Dew or taking photos with it)

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.