Tim Walz: "...an aggressively normal dad"

I see in Walz someone who is a lot like the men who over the years sat in the pews of the churches I’ve served. (He's a member of an ELCA congregation St. Paul, MN)

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and his two children

Like most of you, I was more than curious to find out who Vice President Kamala Harris would choose as her running mate.

I am not a skilled political prognosticator, and therefore I did not think Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was going to be Harris’ choice. He would have been last on my list.

My prediction was that Arizona Senator Mark Kelly would be the choice. After all, Kelly is a retired U.S. Navy fighter pilot, former astronaut, and supportive spouse to former U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords (who suffered a serious brain injury during an assassination attempt in 2011).

Who was Walz, after all, but the unremarkable governor of a blue state which Harris will mostly likely win with or without Walz on the ticket?

I was wrong, as I usually am about these things, but like many people I quickly became enthusiastic about the choice. Why? Well, Walz’s background as a high school teacher and football coach seemed promising. And then there was his military record—24 years as a U.S. Army non-commissioned officer (in the National Guard). But his record as a politician was impressive too—12 years in the U.S. House of Representatives before being elected Governor of Minnesota in 2018.

But the quality that most seemed to define him is that he’s a midwestern dad. He’s not especially fit, he looks older than his 60 years, and he could use some wardrobe help, but all of that somehow works in his favor. He comes across as the dad most of us had or wish we did.

Photo by Caleb Jones on Unsplash

Not everyone was pleased with the selection, of course. I should have anticipated that too. One of my fellow Substackers wrote, “Democrats say Walz has ‘dad vibes’ if your dad is a butter carving Communist China sympathizer who steals valor and starts a snitch line.” What a “butter carving Communist China sympathizer” is, exactly, I don’t know, but clearly Walz is not going to be for everyone.

On the social media website Threads, I posted that Walz doesn’t seem like a “far left socialist radical thug who hates America,” thinking that I was being funny. But I received a barrage of responses letting me know that Walz was in fact evil, if not the devil incarnate. And that I probably was too. Welcome to the current state of social media.

But I don’t see Walz as radical. I see someone who is a lot like the men who over the years sat in the pews of the churches I served. (As a matter of fact, he’s a member of an ELCA congregation in St. Paul.) He’s unremarkable in most ways, but that’s his appeal, isn’t it? His steadiness, reliability, and solid values seem somehow familiar and reassuring. As a recent New York Times headline put it, Walz has “the political appeal of an aggressively normal dad.”

Walz has been criticized for getting free breakfasts and lunches into public schools. He’s been criticized too for making sure girls have access to menstrual products (earning him the nickname “Tampon Tim”). But those are reasons I find myself liking him. He sees a need and looks for a way to address it. He wants the people around him to be the best versions of themselves. He once convinced his high school football team (he wasn’t the head coach, but coached defense) that the players had what it took to be champions. And so that’s what they became.

My older daughter sometimes teases me by sending videos that poke fun of dads. I especially like the “dad on vacation” meme. As portrayed by the videos, dads on vacation are not having fun. They are always on high alert for threats to the family. They keep everything and everyone together, as well as pay the bills and drive the car. They make sure the kids see the Grand Canyon (or whatever) and then get everyone home safely. In other words, they’re serious and responsible, if not always a lot of fun.

I wouldn’t mind having those qualities in my next vice president.