Tim Walz, who was chosen Tuesday to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, has built a career in state and federal politics focused on expanding health coverage and advocating for reproductive rights.
Now in his second term as governor of Minnesota, the former six-term House member’s approach to health policy was shaped, in part, by his personal history.
At age 19, he lost his father to cancer, leaving his mother strapped with medical debt, an experience that informed some of the policy priorities.
“This I think shaped me later in life, and it certainly shaped me as it deals with health care. That last week cost my Mom a decade of having to go back to work to pay those bills,” Walz said in a 2018 campaign video.
In June, Walz signed legislation banning medical providers from withholding medically necessary care because of unpaid debt. The law also banned debt transfer to a widow.
A former high school teacher, Walz signed state legislation last year establishing universal free school meals for kids.
Walz has also spoken in favor of protecting access to fertility treatments, citing his family’s seven-year struggle with infertility. Earlier this year, he shared that he and his wife used in vitro fertilization to conceive their daughter, Hope.
Walz has deep ties to the Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic, whose headquarters lies in his former congressional district. The hospital system was one of the top recipients of federal dollars in his district when he was in office. Mayo Clinic received nearly $30 million in funds in 2018 and 2019, and $183.3 million during his 2017-18 term.
But the hospital system has leveraged its prominence to get the policies it wants. In 2023, the Mayo Clinic pushed Walz and Democratic state lawmakers to scale back their care affordability bill or risk losing billions in hospital investments.
Priorities in Congress
First elected to the House in 2006, Walz was reelected five times before he won the race for governor in 2018.
A 24-year veteran of the Army National Guard, he spent his congressional tenure focused on veterans’ issues, including a two-year stint as ranking member of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee starting in 2017.
In 2018, he supported a House-passed bill that would renew health studies for veterans exposed to a herbicide known as Agent Orange.
In his early days in Congress, Walz received an A rating from the National Rifle Association over his stance supporting gun rights.
But his stance shifted following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Florida in 2018. He’s since been vocal about supporting an assault weapons ban and said that he donated the money he had previously accepted for his campaigns from the NRA to charity.
He voted in 2009 for a bill granting the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products. He also voted in favor of legislation expanding the Children’s Health Insurance Program by $35 billion, an endeavor funded by raising taxes on cigarettes.
Walz voted to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act in 2013, which authorizes programs tackling domestic violence, including law enforcement training, national hotlines and transitional housing.
Expanding care
Walz has made progress in expanding health care in the state. This past year, he used the state’s budget surplus to expand health care benefits in the state. A record number of Minnesotans purchased health care coverage on the federal exchanges in 2024 under his leadership, with over 146,000 sign-ups.
But he hasn’t always been the biggest fan of the Obama administration’s signature health insurance law, known as the Affordable Care Act, which he voted for in the House.
Walz almost lost his congressional reelection bid in 2016, and blamed the nail-biter race on the soaring cost of health insurance in his district due to the 2010 health law.
“When people said that health care was working pretty well before the ACA that was not true in most of the country,” Walz remarked. However, “It was probably true in southern Minnesota.”
“The individual market in the ACA hit hard in our district for numerous reasons,” Walz explained. “Rates were as high as any place in the country. You’ve got a lot of farmers who were getting hit by that.”
When Republicans were searching for an ACA replacement in 2017, Walz said he was open to suggestions as long as they preserved access to care. But he never voted in favor of the GOP’s proposed plans to “repeal and replace” the law.
In 2020, Walz signed into law legislation that would cap insulin costs in emergency situations at a $35 copay per month. The law also capped costs at $50 for 90-day supplies for patients in non-emergency situations.
Last March, Walz issued an executive order protecting access to gender-affirming care in the state.
Reproductive health care
Walz and Harris share a focus on advocating for policies that would expand access to abortion and other forms of reproductive care. In March, Harris joined Walz in a roundtable discussion in a St. Paul Planned Parenthood.
Last year, he signed two laws that protect access to abortion rights. The state has emerged as a “safe haven” for patients in neighboring states with more restrictive laws. The first law enshrines the right to abortion in the state and the other protects Minnesota abortion providers and patients traveling there from out of state from legal action from other states.
“I think that’s why states like Minnesota were firewalling things up. We’re an island of decency out here. It’s ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ out here of the states surrounding me, from the Dakotas to Iowa, forcing women into these terrible situations,” said Walz in a May CNN interview.
His campaign for Congress and voting record in the House also demonstrate support for abortion rights.
In the House, he voted against legislation that would have banned most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and against a bill that would bar using federal funds for health plans that include abortion services. He also opposed an amendment limiting federal funding for abortions during debate of the 2010 health law.
In 2018, he issued a statement apologizing that he had “accidentally voted” in favor of a bill that Republicans say would protect an infant born after an attempted abortion.
