Kamala Harris announced On Tuesday, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz would become his running mate. ahead of a battlefield tour for the 2024 US presidential election.
Walz made the news official in a social media post Tuesday morning, saying it was the “honor of a lifetime” to be selected as Harris’ running mate. The two will attend their first campaign rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, later that afternoon.
Attacks on Walz came immediately from former President Donald Trump’s campaign, which said, among other things, that Walz supported policies that gave convicted felons the right to vote.
Jim Watson and Chris Kleponis/AFP via Getty Images
Requirement
A statement released by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign on August 6, 2024, said: “It’s no surprise that San Francisco liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coast aspirant Tim Walz as her running mate—Walz spent his term as governor trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State.
“While Walz claims to support Midwestern Americans, when the cameras are off he believes rural America is “mostly cows and rocks.”
“Whether it’s proposing his own carbon-free agenda, suggesting stricter emissions standards for gasoline-powered cars, or adopting policies that allow convicted felons to vote, Walz is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide.”
Facts
Although Walz supported the policy of granting convicted felons new voting rights, other important details were omitted.
In 2023, Walz signed a bill restoring voting rights to convicted felons in Minnesota who had served their full prison sentences.
“Today, I signed a bill restoring voting rights to more than 55,000 formerly incarcerated people — the largest expansion of voting rights in Minnesota in half a century,” Walz wrote on Twitter on March 3, 2023.
“Minnesota will continue to lead the fight to ensure our elections are secure, free and fair for all.”
As noted in a press release from the State of Minnesota, the bill restored the civil right to vote for persons convicted of a felony following any incarceration imposed and served for that conviction.
That means people on parole, probation or other forms of supervised release can vote. That’s the case in 22 other states, including states that typically vote Republican in presidential elections, such as Arizona, Utah, Ohio, North Dakota and Montana.
In 15 other states, felons generally lose that right until the end of their supervised release periods, while in 10 others they can lose their rights indefinitely for certain crimes, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL).
Walz’s signing of the 2023 bill has been specifically mentioned in other Republican attack articles, including a bulleted list of criticisms released by the Republican Governors Association after Walz was announced as Kamala Harris’ running mate.
While the Trump team’s claim is therefore correct, the lack of detail could be misleading because it could imply that Walz had voted to adopt much more liberal voting policies for felons, such as in Maine and Vermont, where felons never lost the right to vote.
Newsweek reached out to media representatives for Donald Trump and Tim Walz via email for comment.
decision
Need context.
Tim Walz “embraced” the policy granting convicted felons additional voting rights. However, Trump’s campaign statement does not refer to the policy he supported.
In 2023, Walz signed a bill that would allow felons released from prison to vote before completing their probation or other supervised release. The policy is now in effect in 23 states, including several typically Republican strongholds.
Without that detail, Trump’s campaign statement could mislead others about Walz’s record on ex-offender voting rights.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check Team
