With her selection of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, Kamala Harris has made abundantly clear to the American electorate that she is reinforcing her left-wing image and doubling down on her own well-established record of extremism. In doing so, Harris has not only alienated the Jewish American community and snubbed Pennsylvania voters by not picking Governor Josh Shapiro, whom many considered the betting favorite, but she has also made clear how the Democrat Party has been irreparably damaged by its radicalism and blind submission to the progressive activist class.
Walz, who has served as governor of the North Star State since 2019, was initially seen by political pundits as a dark horse contender bound to be overshadowed by more electorally palatable options like Shapiro or Arizona Senator Mark Kelly. Unlike Shapiro and Kelly, Walz does not hail from a swing state and lacks the national political profile typically characteristic of vice presidential nominees.
He does, however, have a track record of extremism that puts him squarely in the company of the Democrat Party’s most far-left voices like Harris, Bernie Sanders, and the members of “The Squad” in the House of Representatives. Notably, Walz was also one of the leading voices insisting that Joe Biden was still “fit for office” following his debate debacle in June that ultimately led to Biden’s withdrawal from the race – immediately making clear that the American people cannot trust Walz on even basic matters.
As Minnesota’s governor, Walz is perhaps most notorious for his astounding weakness on crime—memorably seen during the Black Lives Matter riots that erupted in Minneapolis in the summer of 2020, during which time Walz was in his second year as governor.
As left-wing rioters burned Minneapolis to the ground following the death of George Floyd, Walz directed law enforcement to abandon their precinct, waited days to deploy the National Guard, and then outrageously sought to legitimize the riots as what happens when “a society that does not put equity and inclusion at the center”—all at the same time that Harris was bailing Minneapolis, rioters, out of prison.
But his inaction during the “fiery but mostly peaceful” riots of 2020 is just the beginning of Walz’s soft-on-crime fanaticism. He also signed legislation to expand voting rights for convicted felons, signed a bill allowing criminals to leave prison early (including a woman who drowned her own baby), and supported the Defund the Police movement. Walz has also presided over massive increases in violent crime in Minnesota.
Walz’s extensive record of extremism does not stop there. On immigration, he supports so-called “sanctuary cities” and “sanctuary states.” He signed legislation allowing illegal aliens to obtain driver’s licenses. He signed a bill giving illegal aliens free, taxpayer-funded health care and college. He opened a Minnesota “Office of New Americans,” which spends taxpayer dollars “solely on supporting immigrant and refugee integration.”
When he served in Congress, Walz co-sponsored a bill to increase chain migration and offer amnesty to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants. He has suggested investing in a “ladder factory” to help illegal aliens cross the southern border wall. And he has refused to even acknowledge that the nation is facing a crisis on the border.
On cultural issues, Walz’s radicalism is like something one would expect from a progressive street activist, not a vice presidential candidate. He has opposed restricting sexually explicit and pornographic content from elementary schools. He signed an order allowing children to receive gender reassignment surgeries with no age limit. He remarked that it is “insane” for one to be upset at partnering with a satanic designer to market transgender products to children. He supports abortion-on-demand without limits and opposes the right of newborn infants to receive lifesaving treatment. And perhaps most bizarrely, he signed legislation requiring Minnesota schools to supply feminine hygiene products in boys’ bathrooms.
Walz has also raised Minnesota taxes by nearly $10 billion, supports a ban on gas-powered cars, opposes fracking, attacked Donald Trump’s supporters as “fascists” just days after the former president was the victim of an assassination attempt, and insulted rural America as “mostly rocks and cows.”
Walz also imposed draconian lockdowns and mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic. And notably, just like Harris, Walz was complicit in the Democrat establishment’s years-long movement to cover up Joe Biden’s staggering mental and cognitive decline—stating earlier this year that Biden was in “great” shape.
Though Harris and other Democrats are likely hopeful that Walz’s status as a Midwestern white man in his 60s will help to make him appear “moderate” and shore up undecided voters in the Rust Belt and throughout the Midwest, in reality, Walz is among the chief facilitators of the hard left’s extremism—and has done more than almost any other governor to promote the Democrat Party’s toxic brand of liberal activism.
Harris’s selection of Walz over other contenders—most notably Josh Shapiro—also serves as a reminder of the progressive movement’s unabating hostility toward the Jewish American community and the state of Israel.
Though Shapiro was initially seen as a favorite for the vice presidential nod on account of his governorship of the must-win swing state of Pennsylvania and broad popularity among Keystone State voters, Harris’s shocking snub signals that her campaign and its parade of left-wing enablers in the Democrat Party have now been entirely coopted by anti-Israel, antisemitic fanatics.
In other words, Jewish Americans are not welcome in today’s Democrat Party—and instead of standing up to the anti-Jewish forces in her party, Harris caved out of fear of progressive backlash.
Above all, Harris’s selection of Walz as her running mate serves as just the latest reminder that the Democrat establishment has entered into a “corrupt bargain” with the most radical voices in American politics—a point that Donald Trump made repeatedly throughout the 2020 presidential campaign cycle and was later reprised in a 2022 TV spot by conservative group Frontiers of Freedom, which made the compelling case that, in order to avoid a primary challenge financed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her billionaire left-wing allies, Democrats have no option but to toe “liberal extremist” line.
But since the airing of that 2022 ad, the extremists wielding power over the Democrat Party now include the likes of antisemitic, anti-Israel forces funded by George Soros and other left-wing billionaires bent on moving America to the left at any cost.
In reality, however, the Harris campaign likely had no choice other than to tap someone like Walz. Harris’s entire campaign relies on carefully orchestrated media events, spun as triumphs to keep the truth at bay and shield her from accountability. They couldn’t afford to face demonstrators at next week’s Democratic National Convention or otherwise provoke the anger of the left-wing activist class.
In the end, this is the reality of today’s Democrat Party—fractured by the extremism it has embraced. By choosing Tim Walz, Harris has selected a perfect embodiment of this radical agenda.
Aaron Flanigan is the pen name of a writer in Washington, D.C.
