Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz has strong ties to rural Nebraska

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was announced as Kamala Harris’s vice presidential candidate on Tuesday morning.

Walz was born in West Point, Nebraska in 1964 and spent most of his youth in the Sandhills.

He attended elementary school in Valentine and graduated from Butte High School in 1982 before joining the Nebraska Army National Guard.

Walz graduated from Chadron State College with a degree in social sciences in 1989 and, after teaching in South Dakota and China, took a position at Alliance High School.

After spending time teaching on an Indian reservation in South Dakota and then overseas in China, Walz returned to the Nebraska Panhandle, where he taught high school and coached football and basketball in Alliance.

There Walz met his current wife, fellow teacher Gwen Whipple.

Jane Kleeb, chairwoman of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said Walz's small-town background could help Harris attract more rural voters.

“I'm excited, of course, because he's from Nebraska, but I'm even more excited for the Democrats because we can finally expand beyond the swing states and the east/west coast to really reach America's middle class,” she said.

Kleeb said Walz understands the issues important to rural voters, including country of origin labeling, right to repair, property rights and funding for rural schools and hospitals.

“He will be able to walk into a room full of rural residents, farmers, ranchers and small business owners and connect with them, both substantively and emotionally, and that will make all the difference,” she said.

In 1993, Walz was named Outstanding Young Nebraskan by the Nebraska Junior Chamber of Commerce.

While in Alliance, Walz was also arrested for drunk driving and charged with speeding 41 mph.

Walz moved to Minnesota in 1996, where he continued teaching in Mankato. Walz was first elected to Congress in 2006 and was elected Governor of Minnesota in 2018.