Vice President Kamala Harris’ selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate has prompted a re-examination of his tenure as a public official.

The Dallas Express conducted a deep dive into the two-term governor’s record to see where a man who could conceivably be considered the second most powerful person in the world stands on the issues. DX found that Walz has a long and complicated history with some of America’s most controversial left-wing causes.

Black Lives Matter

Since the announcement of his selection on August 6, Walz has been hammered by online commentators for not taking more aggressive action against the riots that swept the nation in the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, Minnesota. These riots left considerable destruction across the United States.

The social media account @EndWokeness on X posted a video purporting to show various places in Minnesota before and after the riots.

Libs of TikTok posted something similar.

“This is what happened to Minnesota while Gov. Tim Walz was in charge. Never forget,” Libs of TikTok wrote, posting the statement alongside a video showing a burnt and smoldering cityscape.

 

Former President Donald Trump was critical of Walz at the time of the riots.

“These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you,” Trump tweeted in a message that is still flagged with a warning on X for “glorifying violence.”

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In a separate but contemporaneous tweet, the president threatened to send in the National Guard, which generally answers to governors rather than the president, except in certain emergency situations.

Trump ultimately did not deploy troops to Minnesota. However, following three days of protests and riots, Walz issued an executive order activating the Minnesota National Guard and declaring a “peacetime disaster” on May 28, 2020.

In a statement accompanying the order, he said, “Our state watched Mr. Floyd’s humanity be erased. Our feelings of anguish, anger, and disillusionment are justified, and we must continue to seek justice and fairness. We must continue to examine and address the systemic inequities and discrimination that led to this incident and many others in the past.”

However, he also condemned the activities of the rioters.

“Unfortunately, some individuals have engaged in unlawful and dangerous activity, including arson, rioting, looting, and damaging public and private property,” Walz said, “These activities threaten the safety of lawful demonstrators and other Minnesotans, and both first responders and demonstrators have already been injured.”

“‘We are ready and prepared to answer the Governor’s request. We are currently in process of assigning and preparing units to respond,’ said Maj. Gen. Jon Jensen,” a tweet from the Minnesota National Guard’s account read shortly after the order was announced.

Despite deploying 500 troops to the area, the governor’s actions were ineffective. Later that same evening, a Minneapolis police precinct building was set on fire.

Illegal Immigration

Minnesota is home to two sanctuary jurisdictions that do not cooperate with federal authorities in many deportation efforts. This includes Nobles and Hennepin Counties, which will not honor an ICE detainer without a court order, according to the Center for Immigration Studies.

Walz has supported making Minnesota a sanctuary state.

“My position on Minnesota becoming a sanctuary state boils down to who has the responsibility for enforcing immigration laws,” the then-congressman told CBS in 2018 while campaigning for governor.

Minnesota’s welfare programs offer direct cash assistance to illegal aliens who have been federally processed and paroled into the United States, according to the state’s Refugee Cash Assistance web page.

There are varying types of parole, and who qualifies is largely determined by the existing presidential administration, according to Boundless, a legal services entity based in Utah.

Parole has become one of the largest avenues for illegal aliens to be released into the country after being apprehended by authorities, and the program has received scrutiny because it has allowed more illegal aliens into the country than immigrants who secure green cards.

Minnesota’s taxpayer-funded resources are also available to Cubans and Haitian parolees with “pending Removal Proceedings, who have not been granted parole,” among others, even though the Department of Homeland Security’s Cuban and Haitian parole program has been hit with accusations of widespread fraud.

Economics

Walz has been an enthusiastic supporter of many Biden-era economic policies. Specifically, he supported the Build Back Better agenda, the American Rescue Plan, and the Inflation Reduction Act.

“The Inflation Reduction Act is a massive step in moving our state forward. Minnesota will be stronger with these critical investments to reduce costs for families and combat climate change,” the governor tweeted in August 2022. “Thank you to our senators and representatives who helped get this passed into law.”

However, Walz has not been a rubber stamp for all Democratic economic policies.

NAFTA was signed into law by former President Bill Clinton in 1993. However, in the 2006 Political Courage Test, Walz indicated he opposed the free trade deal, as well as the Republican-backed 2006 CAFTA expansion plan. Walz responded to the Courage Test during his 2006 campaign for Congress. Walz served as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Minnesota’s 1st congressional district from 2007 to 2019.

Walz’s opposition to NAFTA mirrors that of Trump’s vice presidential pick, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH).

In some instances, the governor has supported tariffs against trade predators that manipulate their currency, however, he opposed Trump’s tariffs against China in 2018, calling them “rash” and not in “the interests of America’s farmers,” according to 2018 CampusElect.org issue guide on the Minnesota governor’s race.