Climate Advocates Rally Behind Walz as Harris’ VP Pick

ST. PAUL, Minn.—Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate Tuesday, punctuating a dramatic two weeks that began when President Joe Biden announced in July that he would not seek reelection.

Walz, a second-term Minnesota governor and former U.S. representative known for his plain-spoken approach to politics, emerged as a frontrunner to join the Harris campaign in recent days. He eventually beat out half a dozen other Democratic hopefuls, including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly.

“I am proud to announce that I’ve asked Governor Tim Walz to be my running mate,” Harris said in a statement. “One of the things that stood out to me about Tim is how his convictions on fighting for middle class families run deep.”

Walz grew up in rural Nebraska and taught social studies and coached high school football in Mankato, Minnesota, a small city southwest of Minneapolis, before entering politics. He served six terms in Congress, then was elected governor in 2018. By selecting him, Harris gained a partner with strong rural Midwestern ties who polls well with working-class voters and has a history of championing progressive causes, including the effort to slow climate change.

Tuesday’s announcement prompted high praise from climate advocates, including major national groups like the Sunrise Movement and Sierra Club, all of whom pointed to Walz’s robust environmental record.

“Walz is a climate champion moving Minnesota toward 100 percent clean energy,” Gina McCarthy, Biden’s former Environmental Protection Agency administrator, said in a statement. “He gets that climate action isn’t about politics, it’s about protecting our small towns and cities. It’s about creating safer and healthier communities for our kids and grandkids to grow up in.”

Among his most notable accomplishments as governor, Walz helped pass legislation requiring Minnesota to transition to 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2040, his administration adopted stricter vehicle emissions standards for the state and he signed into law several permitting reform provisions that supporters say will allow the state to build out clean energy far more quickly.

As a Congressman, Walz voted against two resolutions aimed at blocking then-President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, a rule aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions from the nation’s power plants.

On Monday, Harris formally secured the Democratic presidential nomination, following a virtual roll call vote in which almost all the party’s delegates backed her. With Harris set to speak in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, many observers had assumed Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro had secured the second spot on the Harris ticket.

But Stevie O’Hanlon, communications director for the Sunrise Movement, told Inside Climate News that “between the two, Walz was the better choice on climate,” noting that under Walz, Minnesota approved 40 climate initiatives during last year’s legislative session alone. 

“Tim Walz helped pass one of the most ambitious clean energy bills in the country, with just a one-seat Democratic majority,” O’Hanlon said. “Shapiro took on the oil and gas industry as attorney general, but as governor, Shapiro has promoted an all-of-the-above energy strategy that threatens our air and water here in Pennsylvania.”

Audrey Partridge, the policy director for the Center for Energy and Environment, a clean energy advocacy group based in Minneapolis, also believed that Walz had an especially strong climate record among the candidates on Harris’ shortlist. 

Since becoming governor, Partridge said, Walz helped expand the state’s energy efficiency and electrification programs, including ones aimed at low-income households. He also created a program aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the natural gas industry, she said, formed a state office to help workers in towns where coal-fired power plants have shut down and improved coordination and engagement between tribal governments and state agencies.

“Tim Walz helped pass one of the most ambitious clean energy bills in the country, with just a one-seat Democratic majority.”

O’Hanlon said he believes Walz will also help to “energize” certain voting blocs that had become disillusioned with Biden, including young progressives and people of color. The support of those blocs, as well as union workers, were key to Biden’s election victory in 2020, he said.

Walz “seems to have this broader appeal, including in Minnesota, being able to stitch together broader constituencies with this kind of folksy, self-deprecating, classic Minnesotan—if you will—style and approach that vaulted him from relative obscurity nationally,” said Barry Rabe, a political scientist and professor at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy.

That broader appeal, Rabe said, sets him apart from the other top candidates vying to join the Harris ticket. Together, he added, the two bring “quite a bit of federal and state government experience” to the presidential race, which also sets them apart from their opponents. Former President Donald Trump, Rabe said, began his political career through his work in real estate and television and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, came to prominence by writing a memoir and “has been in elected office almost 18 months.”

Biden has taken historic action on climate change, including by enacting the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes more than $370 billion for clean energy and climate efforts. But he struggled to maintain support among young progressives and climate advocates over issues like the war in Gaza and the Willow Project—a massive oil drilling endeavor in Alaska that the Biden administration approved last year.

Ultimately, climate advocates hope a Harris-Walz ticket will help mend the divisions within the Democratic party that worsened during Biden’s reelection campaign.

Partridge thinks the Minnesota governor’s climate record offers a blueprint on how to pass progressive energy policies amid political gridlock and increasing polarization. “He came in with a split legislature and he worked across the aisle on some really practical, impactful energy policy changes, and got those through,” she said. 

“He’s been making major progress on energy efficiency and helping low-income families reduce their utility bills, and looking to grow our state’s clean energy economy with high quality jobs,” Partridge added. “He’s been doing that in a bipartisan way for years. And so I think he can bring that to the national stage.”