Amicable Walz learned hardball politics in the House

In tapping Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) as her running mate, Vice President Harris chose an affable figure with dad-joke zeal and “Minnesota nice” energy. 

But Walz’s time in the House reveals another dimension — one of a shrewd tactician able to survive rough political waters when other Democrats were sinking, and play hardball to achieve his ambitions when the moment demands.

Those attributes surfaced not only in the act of taking tactful votes that helped keep him in his competitive seat, but also during his rise to become the top Democrat on the Veterans Affairs Committee, eclipsing a more senior member in a power play rarely seen in the Democratic caucus.

Sources say that dichotomous disposition — congenial Midwesterner combined with sharp-elbowed political pugilist — likely played a major factor in Harris’s pick of vice presidential candidate, a position that traditionally straddles the dual roles of party cheerleader and attack dog.

Walz’s allies say he’s the perfect fit for the job.

“I​t reminds me of Harry Truman. He says, ‘We’re going to beat those Republicans, and we’re going to make them like it,’” Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) said. “Tim Walz is the kind of guy who will beat Republicans and make them like it.”

Takano is in a good position to know. 

As acting ranking member of the Veterans Affairs Committee in 2016, Takano was in line to take the seat permanently after former Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.) stepped down amid a corruption scandal. Indeed, caucus rules provided for such a transition. 

Instead, Walz jumped in with a challenge — a rare event in a caucus that strongly favors seniority — won the support of party leaders and nudged Takano out of the race.

“There was a spirited contest for the permanent role, and I had garnered significant support,” Takano said, recalling the episode eight years later. “But it was clear that leadership really wanted Tim. And I graciously stepped aside for the sake of unity.”

The race “was never acrimonious,” Takano emphasized, and Walz quickly offered an olive branch by bringing Takano in to help staff the panel. The episode demonstrated not only the degree of Walz’s ambitions, but a capacity to rise through the ranks while maintaining good relations with even those he vanquished on the ascent.

After Walz left Congress to lead Minnesota, Takano assumed the ranking member position, and said Walz greased the way for his advancement by lobbying other lawmakers on his behalf. 

“It was only possible because Tim helped me close the deal,” Takano said. “And in that way, I kind of regard him as a mentor.”

Former Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), who was chair of the Veterans Affairs Committee while Walz was ranking member, recalled working well with the Minnesotan on the committee — but saw an ideological shift in Walz.

“Tim and I, from just a personal standpoint, got along famously. We did,” Roe said, recalling Walz’s passion for addressing veteran suicide and veteran mental health.

“I noticed him taking a hard left turn when he became a candidate for governor,” Roe said

Roe was surprised Walz opposed an extensive Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reform bill, known as the MISSION Act, that former President Trump signed into law in 2018. The legislation was in part a result of Congress’s years-long work to address the 2014 scandal at a Phoenix VA hospital where officials were accused of keeping secret wait lists, with some veterans dying while waiting for appointments.

Walz, who was running in an competitive open primary for Democratic gubernatorial nomination at the time, was one of 70 House Democrats to oppose the bill — and the only member of the Veterans Affairs committee to do so.

Walz said in a statement at the time that he was concerned about the bill’s long-term financial sustainability, and that it would “give the Trump Administration the cover it needs to slowly privatize the VA.” Walz did not take the vote against the bill lightly, he said.

Roe said that while Walz’s vote didn’t change their relationship, he “would have felt better if he had voted and supported that bill,” given the committee’s long work on it.

“After looking to how he’s governed, I assume that probably, you know, he was more liberal than I thought, that he certainly hadn’t shown up until 2017, to me,” Roe said. 

Before that primary, Roe noted, Walz faced different pressures in his competitive district.

“His voting record exemplified that, because you had to go home and explain his votes,” Roe said.

Indeed, though Walz was often a team player, he was also well aware of the delicate electoral challenges in his rural, red-leaning district, which led him to take a number of pragmatic positions that put him at odds with his Democratic colleagues.

Despite his initial support for the Affordable Care Act in 2010, five years later he voted in favor of a bill to repeal its excise tax on medical devices. He later boasted of defying the Democratic National Committee’s advice to not talk about the health care law’s “warts.”

“I said, ‘I can’t do that, because it’s failing my constituents in a lot of ways,’” Walz said at one event, according to a clip posted by the Republican Governors Association as he was seeking the governorship in 2017.

On environmental issues, Walz has won praise from the left for his moves as governor to sign and advance climate-related bills. But he had some low ratings from the League of Conservation Voters when it assessed his House votes. He left Congress with a 75 percent lifetime score with the group, getting dinged for votes on items including supporting GOP-led forest management bill in 2015, opposing Obama-era rules to expand the reach of the Clean Water Act, and being one of 25 Democrats to vote in favor of a proposal to weaken Clean Water Act protections against pesticide discharge in 2017.

Walz was also among just 17 House Democrats who voted with Republicans in 2012 to hold Eric Holder, President Obama’s attorney general, in contempt of Congress for withholding documents related to the Justice Department’s Fast and Furious program, a botched drug-smuggling crackdown that led to the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

Walz’s penchant for bucking his own party while in Congress helped propel him to five successful reelections in a traditionally Republican district, which has been held by the GOP ever since his departure from Capitol Hill. His victory in 2010 was especially notable: It was that year, just months following the passage of the Affordable Care Act, that Democrats lost 63 seats — and control of the House — in a landslide election that was largely a referendum on Obama’s signature health care law. 

Walz, who voted for ObamaCare, survived the cycle — yet another example, in the eyes of his allies, of a unique political savviness that’s practically defined his public service career. 

“He had to be a shrewd and capable, competent member of Congress to represent his constituents, but looking to hold fast on the big-ticket items like the ACA. The ACA was the Big Kahuna,” Takano said. 

“2010 wiped out a lot of Democrats — a lot of Democrats. But Tim was still standing. … That exemplifies, I think, a tremendous ability to build trust with his constituents,” he added. 

“He’s very plain-spoken. People get him. And he’s very hard to dislike.”