Wed 06 August, 2024 {HMC} Kamala Harris’s choice of Tim Walz as running mate has been met with acclaim from US Democrats across the party spectrum.
The little-known governor of Minnesota has strong blue-collar appeal, from his small-town origins in the state of Nebraska, through careers in teaching, football coaching and the United States National Guard, all the way to the second slot on the election ticket.
Plain-speaking “Coach Walz” – as Harris referred to him at a joint campaign event in Philadelphia on Monday – has nailed the party’s most effective attack line yet, his description of Republican candidate Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance as “weird” echoing through several news cycles.
On the domestic front, Walz’s trajectory over the past 18 years has seen the former member of the US Congress move from supporting gun rights, a traditionally right-wing position he repudiated after a 2018 shooting in Florida, to adopting some of the country’s most progressive policies as state governor.
Last year, he passed a raft of laws dubbed the “Minnesota Miracle”, expanding workers’ rights and women’s reproductive rights, strengthening LGBTQ protections, prioritising clean energy, and introducing free meals for all state school children.
Such policies have made Walz a darling of the Democratic left, his nomination as VP attracting high praise from the likes of Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
But as former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, it might be more accurate to describe him as “right down the middle”, a “heartland of America Democrat”.
If Walz could be described as a mainstream Democrat with broad appeal, what kinds of positions is he likely to adopt on foreign policy? His resume, while thin, includes opposition to former President George W Bush’s 2007 troop surge in Iraq, backing for military funding to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and support for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
The VP pick matters. After all, in times of crisis, Walz could end up doing the top job himself. So where does he stand on the chunkiest foreign policy issues of the day, namely Israel-Palestine, Russia-Ukraine and China?
Israel-Palestine
Before looking at Walz’s track record, it’s worth noting that Vice President Harris’s hitherto obedient stance on the ongoing conflict could shift if she becomes president.
A poll earlier this year by the Pew Research Center indicated that nearly half of American adults under 30 opposed providing military aid to Israel.
Hinting that her future stance could prove to be more in tune with the public mood, Harris herself vowed “not to be silent” about suffering in Gaza after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington last month.
Indeed, pundits suggest Harris may have taken a conscious decision to pick Walz over previous hot favourite Josh Shapiro, judging that the former is more likely to follow her lead in taking a more clear-sighted approach to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Shapiro, a more strident backer of Israel’s no-limits drive to eliminate Hamas, was criticised by the left flank of the Democrats for backing a harsh crackdown on pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses, comparing some to the Ku Klux Klan.
In March, he told Minnesota Public Radio, “You can hold competing things: That Israel has the right to defend itself, and the atrocities of October 7 are unacceptable, but Palestinian civilians being caught in this … has got to end.”
Republicans were quick to weaponise Harris’s choice of Walz over Shapiro, JD Vance implying that it was on the grounds of Shapiro’s Jewish faith. “This is a person who listened to the Hamas wing of her own party in selecting a nominee,” he said.
In reality, though, Walz has never diverged from the party line of unconditionally supporting Israel, a position illustrated by his comments earlier this year at an event held by the Jewish Community Relations Council.
“The ability of Jewish people to self-determine themselves is foundational … The failure to recognise the state of Israel is taking away that self-determination. So it is anti-Semitic,” he said.
While sitting in Congress from 2007-2019, Walz voted to condemn a United Nations resolution that Israeli settlements in the West Bank were illegal.
Walz has not spoken publicly on calls to divest from Israeli companies.
Russia-Ukraine
Walz was this week described as an outspoken Ukraine supporter by The Kyiv Independent.
The former military man has been thoroughly engaged in the conflict from the get-go, condemning Russia’s “unprovoked and unlawful attacks” the day after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The following year, he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on a virtual link-up organised by the National Governors Association. “It was an honour to hear from President Zelenskyy firsthand and offer him our unwavering support,” he said afterwards.
In February this year, Walz inked an agricultural deal between Minnesota and the north Ukrainian region of Chernihiv with Kyiv’s ambassador to the US. “It’s a really important showing of friendship and a real important showing of ties,” he said.
He has also supported state legislation ending investments in Russia and barring companies from doing business with Russian and Belorussian firms.
Minnesota is home to weapons manufacturers supplying arms to Ukraine.
With Walz as US vice president, Ukraine can expect the same level of unwavering support as that provided by the administration of current US President Joe Biden.
The major surprise of Walz’s nomination was the belated discovery of his past life in China. Unlike most US leaders, he is likely to have rare insights into a country some predict could one day overtake the US as the world’s superpower.
But with China emerging as a major policy issue, his past involvement with the country will be closely scrutinised, particularly given Trump’s recent claim that Harris will “bow down to China at the expense of America”.
“Communist China is very happy with @GovTimWalz as Kamala’s VP pick,” said Richard Grenell, a former acting director of National Intelligence in the previous Trump administration on X.
However, Walz’s friendship with China is not unconditional.
He was fresh out of teacher training at Nebraska’s Chadron State College when he moved to China in 1989, teaching for a year at a high school in the province of Guangdong through Harvard University’s WorldTeach programme.
That year, he personally witnessed the government’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, which rights groups believe killed thousands.
“It felt like freedom was sweeping the world, and it was just such an optimistic feeling,” he said in undated footage currently circulating online. He decided to remain in Beijing, feeling it was important to bear witness and stand with the Chinese people.
In China, social media users questioned the timing of Walz’s visit to their country, suggesting he had ulterior motives. “Is he from the CIA?” one user commented on the platform Weibo.
In office, Walz appears to have struck a pragmatic balance, promoting ties with a country he evidently loves while refusing to compromise on human rights issues.
During his time in Congress, he served on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, co-sponsoring several bills aimed at addressing rights abuses committed by the Chinese government and co-signing the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act in 2017.
In 2018, he met Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. “The US was founded on the ideas of universal freedom, and I believe that we must continue to urge the Chinese government to provide less regulated religious freedom to the Tibetans,” he said, in earlier remarks.
As governor, he has favoured trade ties with China, calling on former President Donald Trump to end his trade war with the major economy.
However, he believes that Washington should not waver in its opposition to Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea, citing Beijing’s building of artificial islands as a reason not to reduce US military spending.
With “Coach Walz” as VP, the US could potentially enter a new era of more balanced relations with its major geopolitical rival.
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies
