Publish Tim Walz Biography from Birth to 2024 Part 1
Publish Tim Walz Biography from Birth to 2024 Part 1
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00:00Tim Wall's Biography from Birth to 2024 Part 1
00:10Amethy James Walls born April 6, 1964 is an American politician, former schoolteacher,
00:16and retired U.S. Army noncommissioned officer who has served as the 41st Governor of Minnesota
00:21since 2019.
00:23He is the Democratic Party's nominee for Vice President in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
00:30He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2019, and was the ranking member
00:36of the House Veterans Affairs Committee from 2017 to 2019.
00:41Walls was born in West Point, Nebraska.
00:45After high school, he joined the Army National Guard and worked in a factory.
00:49He later graduated from Chadron State College in Nebraska before moving to Minnesota in
00:541996.
00:56Before running for Congress, he was a high school social studies teacher and football
01:00coach.
01:02He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for Minnesota's 1st Congressional District
01:06in 2006, defeating six-term Republican incumbent Gil Gutknecht.
01:12Walls was re-elected to the House five times before being elected Governor of Minnesota
01:16in 2018.
01:18He was re-elected in 2022, defeating Republican nominee Scott Jensen.
01:24During his second gubernatorial term, Walls pushed for and signed a wide range of legislation,
01:29including tax modifications, free school meals, bolstering state infrastructure, gun background
01:34checks, codifying abortion rights, and free college tuition for low-income families.
01:39On Aug. 6, 2024, Vice President Kamala Harris announced Walls as her running mate in the
01:452024 presidential election.
01:48Timothy James Walls was born on April 6, 1964, in West Point, Nebraska, to Darlene
01:53Rose Ryman, a homemaker, and James F. Walls, a teacher, school superintendent, and U.S.
01:59Army veteran who served in the Korean War.
02:02He is of German, Swedish, Luxembourgish, and Irish descent.
02:07In 1867 his great-great-grandfather Sebastian Walls emigrated from Kuppenheimen the Grand
02:12Duchy of Baden, now in Germany, to the United States, and one of his grandmothers was Swedish
02:17American Walls was raised Catholic.
02:20Walls and his three siblings grew up in Valentine, Nebraska, a rural community near Nebraska's
02:25northern border.
02:27While Walls was in high school, his father was diagnosed with lung cancer.
02:32After his father's diagnosis, his family moved to Butte, Nebraska, to be closer to his parents'
02:37relatives.
02:39During the summers he worked on his grandparents' farm in Butte.
02:43Walls graduated from Butte High School in 1982 with a class of 25 students.
02:49Walls's father died in January 1984.
02:52He subsequently moved to Texas and started studying at the University of Houston while
02:57being enlisted in the Texas Army National Guard.
03:00Afterwards he went to Arkansas where he built tanning beds in a factory and was an instructor
03:04in the Arkansas Army National Guard.
03:08In 1987, Walls returned to Nebraska and continued his education at Chadron State College, where
03:13he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Social Science Education in 1989.
03:19After graduating from Chadron State College in 1989, Walls accepted a one-year teaching
03:23position with WorldTeach in Foshan No. 1 High School in Guangdong, China.
03:29After returning, Walls took a job teaching and coaching in Alliance, Nebraska, and in
03:331993 he was named Outstanding Young Nebraskan by the Nebraska Junior Chamber.
03:38While working as a teacher, he met his wife, Gwen Whipple, a fellow teacher, and in 1994
03:44the two married.
03:45Two years later they moved to Mankato, Minnesota, his wife's home state, where he worked as
03:50a geography teacher and football coach at Mankato West High School.
03:54The team had lost 27 straight games when he joined the coaching staff as a defensive coordinator.
04:01Three years later, in 1999, the team won its first state championship.
04:06In 1999, Walls agreed to be the faculty advisor of Mankato West High School's first gay-straight
04:11alliance.
04:13He and his wife also ran Educational Travel Adventures, which organized summer educational
04:18trips to China for high school students from 1994 to 2003.
04:23Walls earned a Master of Science in Educational Leadership from Minnesota State University,
04:27Mankato, in 2001, writing his master's thesis on Holocaust education.
04:33In March 2006, he took a leave of absence from teaching to focus full-time on his congressional
04:38campaign.
04:40With his father's encouragement, Walls enlisted in the Army National Guard when he turned
04:4417.
04:46His father had served in the Korean War and paid for his education degree with the GI
04:50Bill, and he wanted his son to have the same opportunity.
04:54Walls served in the National Guard for 24 years after enlisting in 1981.
05:00In 2001, he completed the 20 years of service needed for retirement from the Guard, but
05:04he re-enlisted after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
05:09During his military career, he had postings in Arkansas, Texas, the Arctic Circle, New
05:14Ulm, Minnesota, and elsewhere.
05:17He trained in heavy artillery.
05:20During his service, he worked in disaster response postings following floods and tornadoes
05:24and was deployed overseas.
05:27In 1989, he earned the title of Nebraska Citizen Soldier of the Year.
05:32In August 2003, Walls deployed with the Minnesota National Guard to Vicenza, Italy, for nine
05:37months to serve with the European Security Force in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
05:43His decorations included the Army Commendation Medal and two Army Achievement Medals.
05:48Walls attained the rank of Command Sergeant Major near the end of his service and briefly
05:52was the senior enlisted soldier in the 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery Regiment.
05:59In February 2005, Walls submitted official documents to run for Congress and represent
06:04Minnesota there.
06:06The next month, his National Guard unit was notified of a possible deployment to Iraq
06:11within the next two years.
06:13Walls retired from military service in May 2005, later explaining that he wanted to focus
06:19on his ongoing campaign for Congress and did not want to violate the Hatch Act, which forbids
06:22some political activities by federal government employees.
06:27During his political career, Republicans used the timing of his military retirement as a
06:31smear campaign that has been compared to swift boating.
06:35A National Guard colleague remarked that at the time Walls retired, his unit's deployment
06:39was only a rumor and not yet confirmed.
06:43According to the Minnesota National Guard, Walls retired before his unit was officially
06:47notified in July 2005 of their confirmed deployment to Iraq, with his unit mobilizing
06:52in September 2005 and moving to Iraq in March 2006.
06:57Walls's final military rank was Master Sergeant for retirement benefit purposes, since he
07:01did not complete required coursework to remain as Command Sergeant Major.
07:06The downgrade of one rank was effective from the day before his military retirement.
07:12Walls volunteered for John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign.
07:17He was inspired to volunteer in the presidential election after he took a group of students
07:20to a George W. Bush rally in Mankato and was angered by the security team's questioning
07:25of his students' politics after they saw a Kerry sticker on a student's wallet.
07:30He was appointed the Kerry Campaigns Coordinator for his county as well as a District Coordinator
07:35of Vets for Kerry.
07:37In 2005, Walls completed the two-and-a-half-day campaigns and elections crash course at Camp
07:42Wellstone, a program run by Wellstone Action, the nonprofit organization Mark and David
07:46Wellstone created to carry on the work of their parents, Paul Wellstone and Sheila Wellstone.
07:52On Feb. 10, 2005, Walls filed to run for the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota's
07:581st Congressional District.
08:01The congressional district consisted mostly of Republican-leaning independents.
08:06He had no opponent for the Minnesota Democratic Reformer Labor Party, DFL, nomination in the
08:112006 primary election.
08:14In the general election, he faced six-term incumbent Republican Gil Gutknecht.
08:20During the campaign, Walls accused Gutknecht of extending tax cuts to Wall Street and sought
08:24to align Gutknecht with President George W. Bush.
08:28A centerpiece of Walls's campaign was opposition to the Iraq War, as the war's popularity was
08:33declining that year.
08:35Walls won the election with 53 percent of the vote.
08:39After his victory, Politico described Gutknecht as having been caught off guard and Walls
08:43as having resolved never to get caught like that himself.
08:47He packaged himself as a moderate from day one, built an office centered on constituent
08:51service and carved out a niche as a tireless advocate for veterans.
08:56Walls was re-elected in 2008 with 62 percent of the vote, becoming only the second non-Republican
09:01to win a second full term in the district.
09:05He won a third term in 2010 with 49 percent of the vote in a three-way race against Republican
09:09State Rep. Randy Demmer and independent former diplomat Steve Wilson.
09:14Afterwards, he was re-elected by comfortable margins in 2012 and 2014.
09:21In 2016, Walls was narrowly re-elected to a sixth term, defeating Republican Jim Hagedorn
09:26who would later succeed Walls as congressman by 0.7 percent, or 2,548 votes, even as his
09:33district overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump in the concurrent presidential election.
09:38Following this, and as his district trended more Republican, Walls opted not to seek a
09:42seventh term in 2018 and instead ran for governor.
09:47Upon his swearing-in at the beginning of the 110th Congress, Walls became the highest-ranking
09:51retired enlisted soldier ever to serve in Congress, as well as only the fourth Democrat
09:56slash DFLer to represent his district.
09:59The others were Thomas Wilson, 1887-1889, William Harries, 1891-1893, and Tim Penney,
10:081983-1995.
10:10In his first month in Congress, Walls was appointed to the Committee on Veterans Affairs,
10:15the Agriculture Committee, and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
10:20Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a special waiver exempting him from the order that barred most
10:24freshman members of Congress from serving on more than two committees.
10:28That same year he was appointed to the Armed Services Committee.
10:33In his first week as a legislator, Walls co-sponsored a bill to raise the minimum wage, voted for
10:37stem cell research, voted to allow Medicare to negotiate pharmaceutical prices, and voiced
10:42support for pay-as-you-go budget rules, requiring that new spending or tax changes not add to
10:47the federal deficit.
10:49Even as he represented a district that had usually voted Republican, pundits described
10:53Walls's policy positions as ranging from moderate to progressive.
10:58He voted to advance the Affordable Care Act out of the House.
11:02As a congressman, he also met with the Dalai Lama and served on a commission monitoring
11:06human rights in China.
11:09An opponent of the Iraq War, Walls opposed the Bush administration's plan to send an
11:13additional 21,500 troops to Iraq in 2007.
11:17However, he voted in favor of a bill in May of that year that provided nearly $95 billion
11:23in funding for the war through Sept. 30.
11:26Walls explained that his vote was to ensure the safety of American troops while also stating
11:30he would continue to negotiate a process to pull troops from Iraq.
11:35During the economic crisis in 2008, Walls repeatedly spoke out against using taxpayer
11:40money to bail out financial institutions.
11:43In late September, he voted against the $700 billion TARP bill, which purchased troubled
11:48assets from these institutions.
11:51Walls released a statement after the bill's passage, saying,
11:54The bill we voted on today passes the buck when it comes to recouping the losses taxpayers
11:58might suffer.
12:00I also regret that this bill does not do enough to help average homeowners or provide sufficient
12:05oversight of Wall Street.
12:07In December 2008, Walls voted against the bill that offered $14 billion in government
12:12loans to bail out the country's large automobile manufacturers.
12:16In June 2009, he introduced a bipartisan resolution calling on the federal government to relinquish
12:22its temporary ownership interests in the General Motors Company and the Chrysler Group,
12:27LLC.
12:28As soon as possible and said that the government must not be involved in those companies' management
12:32decisions.
12:34Despite his votes against bailout bills that loan taxpayer money to large banks and auto
12:38manufacturers, Walls did vote with his Democratic colleagues to support the American Recovery
12:43and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
12:46As a member of the House Transportation Committee, he saw the stimulus bill as an opportunity
12:51to work with his congressional colleagues to make job creation through investment in
12:54public infrastructure like roads, bridges and clean energy the cornerstone of the economic
12:59recovery plan.
13:01Walls has focused heavily on job and economic issues important to the Southern Minnesota
13:05District he represented in Congress, which has a mix of larger employers such as the
13:09Mayo Clinic and small businesses and agricultural interests.
13:13In July 2009, he voted for the Enhancing Small Business Research and Innovation Act, which
13:19he called part of our long-term economic blueprint to spur job creation by encouraging America's
13:23entrepreneurs to innovate toward breakthrough technological advancements.
13:28Walls also urged assistance for hog and dairy farmers who struggled with lower prices for
13:32their commodities in 2008 and 2009.
13:36Walls opposes using merit pay for teachers.
13:40Voting in favor of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Walls pointed to its strong
13:44provisions in support of public school buildings.
13:48He is on record supporting legislation to lower tuition costs.
13:52In a speech in February 2009, he said that the most important thing to do to ensure a
13:57solid base for America's economic future is to provide the best education possible for
14:02American children.
14:05Walls has received strong backing for these policies from many interest groups, including
14:09the National Education Association, the American Association of University Women, and the National
14:14Association of Elementary School Principals.
14:18I stop at this point today.
14:20I hope I added something to you.
14:24Soon we will publish.
14:25Part.
14:262.
14:28You enjoyed the last few minutes.
14:30We will meet with you soon.
14:36For watching.
14:44For more information, visit www.fema.gov