In a dream world, in an ideal world, we’d get a VP who was folksy, funny, genuine, caring, can voice up accomplishments and voice down nefarious cynical politicians.

We just got that.

Vice President Kamala Harris Announces Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as Her 2024 Running Mate.

AP and other sources are reporting that US Vice President Kamala Harris has selected current Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate in the 2024 presidential election. Before becoming governor in 2019, he was first elected to the US House in Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District six times between 2006 and 2016.

You can read more about Tim Walz here on Wikipedia.

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“What a monster!” Walz quipped on CNN. “Kids are eating and having full bellies so they can go learn and women are making their own healthcare decisions … So, if that’s where they want to label me, I’m more than happy to take the label.”

“How often in 100 days do you get to change the trajectory of the world? How often in 100 days do you get to do something that’s going to impact generations to come?” Walz asked. “And how often in the world do you make that bastard wake up afterwards and know that a Black woman kicked his ass, sent him on the road?”

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A few reactions to Harris’ selection of Walz as her VP pick:

“Oh thank God!! Hearing him talk is awesome, he is so normal and caring and it is so refreshing. He has a good record and loves to defend it

“My favorite thing about Walz is he was a high school teacher. He knows how to answer stupid questions from the media and deal with immature people.”

“Y’all don’t know how much I was prepared to be let down.

I can’t explain how happy I am!!!

Let’s fucking go!!!!”

“My wife and I were looking at Minnesota to move to from Florida. Its ranks among the top in a multitude of categories like happiest people, best educated, great healthcare, fiscal stability. This is one of the guys to blame for that. Hopefully he can propagate the success he’s had with Minnesota to the nation.”

“This guy understands the assignment every time. He’s a genuine progressive in the FDR sense.”

“If you looked up Geography Teacher in the dictionary this would be the portrait.”

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7 Reasons I’m so happy it’s Walz:

1. He’s a former football coach, public school geology teacher for 20 years, union member, former military (senior ranking in Congress when he served in DC), Congressman.
2. He exudes empathy and warmth and knows how to talk about facts and caring in an interesting, honest, straightforward way with people.
3. He can bring in older voters, working class voters.
4. Also, he has a cat. And a dog!
5. Replacing him in Minnesota: You’re about to have the first Native American (*I should also emphasize woman) governor
6. I have always been of the opinion that, at a policy level, Americans are much more progressive than we get credit for. What Walz has done in MN shows that. Instituted very progressive policies and they love him for it. And ran a budget surplus last year. Enough of a surplus to cover an expected deficit this year.”Tim Walz is – by far – the most based Democrat governor in the country. With a 1 seat majority in Minnesota he did:

universal free school meals

legal weed

carbon free electricity by 2040

tax rebates for the working class up to $1,300 (making under $150k per year)

12 weeks paid family leave

12 weeks paid sick leave

banned conversion therapy

red flag laws for guns

universal background checks for guns

automatic voter registration

free public college (under $80k)

ban on PFAS (forever chemicals)

$2.2 billion increase in k-12 school funding

sectoral bargaining for nursing home workers”

~ Kyle Kulinski

7. This clip of him signing the free lunches into law is adorable, by the way.

“Republicans made a last ditch effort to block the bill.” Of course. Weird.

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Harris/Walz 2024!