From his teen start in the US military to teaching in China and on a Native American reservation before entering politics, Democratic vice presidential pick Tim Walz packs a full resume -- and exudes folksy appeal.
A second-term Minnesota governor and now Kamala Harris's running mate, Walz brings a rural Midwestern perspective to her campaign as she squares off against Republican Donald Trump in the US presidential race.
Alongside his blue-collar persona, he is a champion of liberal goals that will motivate the Democratic base.
As governor, Walz has signed bills increasing worker protections and rights like paid sick leave, and expanding background checks for gun purchases.
He describes his refusal-to-be-categorised political persona with typically Minnesotan straightforwardness.
"I just am who I am," he recently told reporters.
Vice President Harris clearly hopes Walz's everyman appeal can help her win the "blue wall" states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and neighbouring Wisconsin -- Rust Belt post-industrial battlegrounds critical to Democratic chances of holding the White House in November.
Walz, 60, chairs the Democratic Governors Association. He also spent a dozen years representing southern Minnesota in the US House of Representatives.
He has highlighted his success in job creation, education funding and protecting abortion access across the state, and has called for greater action to fight climate change.
Walz had been a relative political unknown for Americans, but that began to shift in recent weeks when his criticism of Trump and running mate J D Vance as "weird" gained traction.
"I see Donald Trump talking about the wonderful (movie character) Hannibal Lecter or whatever weird thing he is on tonight.... That is weird behavior," Walz told CNN recently. "I don't think you call it anything else."
Those comments appeared to break through Trump's at-times seemingly impenetrable political armour.
Born in Nebraska, Walz enlisted in the Army National Guard when he was just 17, serving 24 years in domestic and overseas deployments.
He taught in China's Guangdong province in 1989. He later taught at the Native American Reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, as well as in Nebraska. In the mid-1990s he moved with his wife to Minnesota, her home state, where he taught high school and coached the school football team.
As for aligning with Harris, "we have the same values. We believe we can win in the Midwest," he told Fox News.
Walz is also likely to come under fire from the right for two culture war issues he found himself in the middle of: expanding vaccinations across the state during the Covid-19 pandemic, and dealing with the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, a Black man whose death at the hands of police sparked nationwide protests.
Meanwhile, Kamala Harris will campaign alongside her new running mate, Tim Walz, on Wednesday, holding events in battleground states Wisconsin and Michigan that will offer an early test of his Midwestern credentials.
The trip to Eau Claire in Wisconsin and Detroit in Michigan is the first campaign swing for Walz, the governor of nearby Minnesota, whom Harris chose as her vice presidential pick on Tuesday in the biggest political decision of her nascent White House bid that has energized Democrats and shaken up the race.
The selection of Walz, an Army National Guard veteran and former teacher, adds geographic balance to a ticket with a Californian at the helm who needs a strong showing in the Midwest to win the November 5 election.
A former congressman who won elections in a Republican-leaning district, Walz has a record of appealing to the white, rural voters who have increasingly turned to Donald Trump, this year's Republican presidential nominee, over the years.
In an interview on Fox News on Wednesday, Trump called Walz a "shocking pick" and sought to paint him as a radical progressive. "He's a smarter version of her," Trump told the hosts of "Fox & Friends."
Trump also said he would debate Harris in the "pretty near future" and that details would be announced soon. He said his preference was that Fox hosts the debate.
Last week Trump proposed a debate with Harris on Fox News on September 4. The Harris campaign said Trump was trying to back out of a debate that had already been set to run on ABC on September 10.
Democrats regard Wisconsin and Michigan as near must-wins in the 2024 election, and they have loomed large for the party since Hillary Clinton's unexpected defeats there helped clinch Trump's 2016 win.
Biden beat Trump in both states in 2020, but polls showed him facing a close battle in Michigan before he dropped out of the race last month, with much of the state's significant Arab and Muslim American population fuming over his administration's support for Israel in its war against Hamas.
The Republican vice presidential candidate, Senator J D Vance, was also set to speak in Eau Claire on Wednesday as part of a tour following Harris and Walz this week.
The Democratic trip is expected to include more than a half dozen states likely to determine the winner of the election, as the campaign aims to introduce Walz, who is not well known nationally.
Michael Mathes
The writer is AFP politics and Congress correspondent, Washington DC
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