Climate action has not been a central theme of this year’s Democratic presidential campaigns. But the elevation of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to the ticket offers climate hawks a new chance to define the election.
Of all the potential running mates on her shortlist, Vice President Kamala Harris chose the one with the biggest record of climate accomplishments. And in a remarkable display of unity, the pick drew praise from Green New Dealers such as New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as well as Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia independent who’s aligned with the fossil fuel sector.
Walz has passed environmental policies that Democrats would like to replicate nationally. Even more importantly, some strategists say, is the governor’s willingness to treat that kind of climate action as a political winner.
Now, with 90 days until the election, Walz’s climate profile could be especially influential to a campaign that’s still defining itself — and still being defined by Republicans.
“He governed in a way that really communicated [that] when you’ve got the keys, you drive that sucker as far as you can,” Ocasio-Cortez said on an Instagram livestream.
Walz’s rise to the ticket suggested Harris was leaning into the same philosophy. “I think that’s what Vice President Harris is communicating in her pick,” Ocasio-Cortez added.
It’s not clear how the Harris campaign will message Walz’s climate record, which includes adopting California’s car pollution standards and passing a clean electricity standard that mandates zero-carbon power by 2040.
The campaign’s announcement of Walz as running mate did not mention the governor’s climate record. And at the duo’s debut rally Tuesday evening in Philadelphia, Harris ticked through all the details of Walz’s résumé — but never mentioned his significant climate credentials.
Walz went through his vision of America, attacking Trump on abortion rights, democracy and creating tax breaks for the wealthy. He also did not mention his climate policies or attack former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, for rejecting climate science.
Walz’s supporters and opponents of agree, though, that his climate record is full of details that could sway voters.
“This is *the* climate pick,” Jamie Henn, a longtime climate advocate who now runs Fossil Free Media, wrote on social media. “Tim Walz had the best climate record of any of the VP contenders and has been unafraid to take on Big Oil.”
Progressives hope that Walz, whose branding of Trump and Vance as “weird” caught fire on cable news shows, can also revitalize the Democratic Party’s climate messaging at a time when the issue is increasingly framed as a culture war.
Walz has a natural way of creating a populist appeal on key Democratic priorities like abortion and energy that connects policy to the everyday lives of regular people, said Faiz Shakir, a Democratic strategist who managed Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign.
Shakir said Walz is unique among politicians in the way that he instinctively puts “regular, working class people at the center of his thought process.”
“The way he talks about climate, it doesn’t become an academic conversation of ‘let me tell you about these metrics over this period of time,’” Shakir said. “He’s able to talk about those real world impacts as something that we’re not just susceptible to and can do nothing about, but that those are things we can address and be empowered to do something about.”
Supporters point to an example from years ago.
In 2021, as he was preparing for his reelection campaign, Walz finalized the process of adopting California’s auto standards — making Minnesota the first state in the Midwest to do so.
It was one of Walz’s first major climate policies, and he did it through executive action over the objections of GOP lawmakers who controlled the state Senate. Republicans, wagering that Walz had overplayed his hand, campaigned against the car standards during the midterms.
“The rhetoric that a lot of the opponents were pushing was that ‘they’re just coming to take your trucks,’” said Leigh Currie, an environmental advocate who previously worked for the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office.
“Walz was really good at delivering the message of ‘look, this is what the rule actually does,’’ said Currie, who is now the chief legal officer at the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. “If you want to drive your truck, you can drive your truck.”
Instead of paying a political price for the car rules, Walz emerged from the midterms with a 7-point reelection victory — along with the first Democratic governing trifecta in about a decade. With a one-vote majority, he steered the Legislature to pass some of the strongest climate policy in the country.
That’s the kind of record that climate voters hope to hear from the Harris-Walz ticket, Currie added. “Climate should be a central issue in the presidential campaign. So I hope this appointment elevates it.”
Some Republicans hope it does, too.
The Trump campaign immediately started to portray Walz, an avid hunter and ice fisher first elected to Congress in a conservative House district, as a “West Coast wannabe” trying to reshape “Minnesota in the image of the Golden State.” The attacks centered on his climate policy.
“From proposing his own carbon-free agenda, to suggesting stricter emission standards for gas-powered cars, and embracing policies to allow convicted felons to vote, Walz is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide,” Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. (Trump is a convicted felon.)
Speaking in Philadelphia ahead of Harris and Walz’s speeches on Tuesday, Vance attacked Walz’s climate policy as a boon to China.
“I can’t believe this is a guy who tries to claim that he stands for working people and yet he wants to pursue energy policies that are going to ship everybody’s job to China,” Vance said.
It’s unlikely that Walz will eclipse the Trump campaign’s focus on Harris. And some analysts said that Walz’s popularity among all corners of the Democratic Party would allow the Harris campaign to keep the focus on Trump.
“He’s a ‘do no harm’ pick that keeps the decision focused on the top of the ticket,” Adam Carlson, a former pollster with the political consultancy Global Strategy Group, wrote on social media.
While Carlson had wanted Harris to pick Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shaprio, he said, “I am personally relieved that I don’t have to spend the next three months defending Shapiro to his detractors within the party, and we can all focus on November.”
