Another Minnesota veep, dontcha know? Tim Walz seeks to follow Humphrey and Mondale
WASHINGTON - If Kamala Harris has her way, Minnesota may become known as the cradle of Democratic vice presidents.
Gov. Tim Walz would be the third Minnesotan of the last six Democratic veeps, should Harris and her newly minted running mate prevail in November.
Walz would join Hubert Humphrey, vice president to President Lyndon Johnson during the 1960s, and Walter Mondale, the second-in-command to President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s; both Minnesota predecessors became presidential nominees who lost general elections, and both delivered memorable convention speeches.
Humphrey, Mondale, and Walz all have something else in common: "Deep, loving roots in rural communities and yet the ability and desire to engage with the larger world," said Samuel G. Freedman, author of "Into the Bright Sunshine: Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights."
"These were all men who were totally at home in the small-town Minnesota of hunting, ice-fishing, and church suppers, but resisted the snare of being parochial," Freedman said. "When each of them came to the big city, they equally connected to the causes and activists of organized labor and civil rights."
On the social media website X, historian Michael Beschloss posted a picture: "First Minnesota Vice President, Hubert Humphrey, with LBJ at his ranch after election of 1964, the year that both Walz and Harris were born."
After moving from vice president to presidential nominee, Humphrey lost narrowly to Richard Nixon in 1968, and Mondale lost in a landslide to Ronald Reagan in 1984. Mondale carried only Washington, D.C., and his home state of Minnesota.
(A side note: During his first term in office, Nixon appointed two Minnesotans to the U.S. Supreme Court: Warren Burger and Harry Blackmun. Reporters promptly dubbed them the "Minnesota Twins," an homage to the state's major league baseball team.)
"Minnesota is two for two on vice-presidential candidates over the last sixty years - it's also 0-for-two on presidential nominees," said James Traub, author of "True Believer: Hubert Humphrey's Quest for a More Just America."
He added: "The plain inference is that Minnesota produces the kind of profoundly decent, thoughtful, wholesome figures who make the perfect accompaniment to the more tough-minded figures whom Americans prefer as presidents."
Walz will likely hear comparisons to his Minnesota forebearers when formally accepts the nomination at this month's Democratic convention - both Humphrey and Mondale gave memorable speeches at previous conclaves, especially Humphey.
In 1948, when he was the mayor of Minneapolis, Humphrey used his convention speech to urge Democrats to get behind the then-contentious issue of civil rights. In an historic address, he said that "the time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states' rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights."
Mondale's acceptance speech in 1984 was notable for two reasons: He had selected the first female running mate (Geraldine Ferraro) and he became one of the few political leaders to call for raising taxes.
"It must be done, it must be done," Mondale said. "Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Another Minnesota veep? Tim Walz seeks to follow Humphrey, Mondale