Tim Walz

Timothy James Walz (born April 6, 1964) is an American politician, former educator, and Army National Guard veteran serving since 2019 as the 41st governor of Minnesota. From 2007 to 2019, he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Minnesota's 1st congressional district. Walz is a member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), which affiliates with the national Democratic Party, and was the party's vice presidential nominee in the 2024 presidential election.

Walz was born in West Point, Nebraska, and grew up in Valentine, Nebraska. After graduating from Butte High School in 1982, he joined the Army National Guard and worked in a factory. He later graduated from Chadron State College in Nebraska before moving to Minnesota in 1996, where he attended Minnesota State University, Mankato and Saint Mary's University of Minnesota. Before running for Congress, he was a high school social studies teacher and football coach. He was first elected to the House in 2006, defeating six-term Republican incumbent Gil Gutknecht. Walz was reelected to the House five times and was the ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee from 2017 to 2019.

Walz was elected governor of Minnesota in 2018 and reelected in 2022. During his first term, he presided over the state response to protests and riots related to the murder of George Floyd, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. During his second term, he pushed for and signed a wide range of progressive legislation during the two-year period Democrats held a governing trifecta, including voting rights restoration for felons, driver's licenses for illegal immigrants, establishing Minnesota as a trans refuge, legalization of cannabis, tax modifications, free school meals, free feminine hygiene products in schools, universal gun background checks, codifying abortion rights, and free college tuition for low-income families.