Tim Walz’s political evolution took him from moderate Democrat to progressive champion

\r\nIn 2023, Tim Walz declared the time for bargaining, light cajoling and compromise was over. After four years of divided government, Minnesota voters had handed Democrats control of the state House, Senate and, for Walz, reelection to the governor’s mansion. After the “enormous headwinds and complicated politics” of his first term in office, he argued his party had been given “a new mandate for action.” “The day I took the oath of office for the second time, I declared that the era of gridlock was over,” Walz said during his State of the State address last year. “This is a moment we have been building towards for a long time. And we won’t let it go to waste.” What came next – the passage and signing of a slew of progressive laws – is now under a microscope with the Minnesota governor vaulting onto the national stage as Vice President Kamala Harris’ newly named running mate. And Walz’s journey – from teacher, National Guard veteran and football coach to congressman, governor and now potential vice president – is as much about his own personal political evolution as the state and country that changed around him