What to know about Kamala Harris' running mate Tim Walz

Vice President Kamala Harris has selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate for the 2024 presidential election, kicking off the start of a new team that will be blitzing battleground states trying to secure crucial votes.

Walz, who according to prior reports had been a co-finalist for the slot alongside Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, has been governor of Minnesota since 2019, when he succeeded fellow Democratic-Farmer-Labor Gov. Mark Dayton.

Prior to that, he served as the congressman for Minnesota's 1st Congressional District, a historically left-leaning rural area that shifted toward Republicans in the Trump years.

Born in West Point, Nebraska, in his early life Walz enlisted in the Army National Guard, where he trained in heavy artillery and worked disaster response, as well as overseas deployments including in the Arctic. He also worked as a teacher following a stint educating kids at the Indian reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota. During that portion of his career he taught both overseas in China and in Nebraska and Minnesota, where he served as a youth football coach and advised the school's first gay-straight alliance.

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He has also chaired the Democratic Governors Association.

In his time as governor he became known for a series of progressive reforms in Minnesota, including the passage of free school lunches for all, cannabis legalization, gun safety laws, and the protection of abortion rights.

Harris reportedly had told close advisers she was focused on choosing someone with governing experience as her running mate, over someone who would check boxes for electoral groups.