Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ choice of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate Tuesday reinforces her party’s strategy of maintaining a “blue wall” in the Midwest while seeking to win back rural voters who have increasingly turned Republican under Donald Trump.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker was a finalist for the running mate position and must now consider his political future while returning to his regular duties, which included signing a progressive bill Tuesday on post-incarceration identification.
Speaking to reporters at the bill signing, the second-term Democrat acknowledged he went through an “exhausting” selection process for the No. 2 job in the two weeks since President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid and endorsed Harris, his vice president, as his successor.
“I’m pleased to have made it through this process, to have reached the final number of candidates,” Pritzker said, calling it an “honor” to get to this stage of Harris’ selection process and emphasizing that the Harris-Walz ticket has his support “1,000 percent.”
“I want to be clear with everybody. You know, you hear me say a lot, ‘I love being governor of Illinois.’ I really love being governor of Illinois, and so I’ve had a lot of mixed feelings throughout this process about being a part of this process,” he said. “I come to work every day knowing that we can make a difference and we have over the last five and a half years, so I continue to come to work with a lot of joy and I have no regrets at all about the fact that we have a great Midwestern governor in Tim Walz.”
Walz and Pritzker were both elected governor in 2018, but while Pritzker enjoyed strong Democratic legislative majorities throughout his tenure, the Minnesota governor faced partisan division during his first term. Since Democrats took control of the Minnesota legislature in 2022, Walz has been able to advance a progressive agenda on abortion and voting rights, universal school meals, infrastructure improvements and clean energy.
“He has demonstrated, by all accounts, that he is trustworthy and a person of integrity, and that is far more than can be said of Donald Trump’s vice presidential choice,” Pritzker said, referring to the Republican presidential nominee’s running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.
There’s an old saying that “timing is everything in politics and show business,” and Biden’s surprise decision to drop out of the race has given Democrats a boost ahead of their national political convention in Chicago, while also stoking Pritzker’s political aspirations.
Pritzker had previously sought to expand his national footprint as a White House campaign official and through his abortion rights organization, Think Big America.
By being selected but not winning the vice presidential contest, Pritzker had to settle for an old political adage: “It’s better to be ignored than overlooked.” Other finalists included Governors Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Andy Beshear of Kentucky and Wes Moore of Maryland, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
But it also blurs the timeline of Pritzker’s White House ambitions. If Harris, 59, wins two terms in the White House, Walz would be the Democratic Party’s favored successor in 2032. Pritzker would be 67 and Walz 68 when that election takes place.
A Trump victory in November could still make Walz the party’s frontrunner in an open-seat presidential election in 2028, though the race would be competitive.
Pritzker must also decide whether to seek a third term as governor in 2026, given that presidential candidates who hold public office have greater political clout.
Pritzker said Tuesday that he had had no discussions about his electoral future after failing to make the vice presidential selection process.
“I have not considered serving in Harris’ Cabinet, if the Democratic ticket wins,” he said. His sister, Penny, served as commerce secretary in the Obama White House.
Asked about his candidacy to lead the Democratic Governors Association, which Walz chairs, Pritzker demurred, saying it takes “an awful lot of time.”
“I really enjoy my job and I remember we made a lot of improvements. We still have a lot of work to do for the state of Illinois, but we made a lot of improvements,” he said. “Every day I try to think about what’s next, what we can do to make people’s lives better.”
Former Illinois House Republican leader Jim Durkin, who has at times publicly feuded with Pritzker and at times worked closely with him on bipartisan legislation, including a landmark capital construction program, said it was not surprising to see the governor among the finalists to join Harris on the Democratic ticket.
At the same time, “it was a risky bet,” Durkin said, given that Illinois is “as blue as it gets,” meaning Pritzker would have little chance of substantially increasing Harris’ vote total.
“Governor Pritzker has nevertheless positioned himself to be a formidable candidate going forward. He is still young by Washington standards,” Durkin said.
“And I’ll take the partisan issues and put them aside – he’s been able to implement his agenda, a Democratic agenda, almost 100 percent since he’s been in office, so his record is very strong with Democratic primary voters.”
But Dennis Goldford, professor emeritus of political science at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and a frequent commentator on the presidency, said that if Pritzker “has presidential ambitions, he has a long way to go to do anything in that regard” because of Harris’ choice of Walz.
From his perch in a state bordering Illinois and Minnesota, Goldford said Pritzker and his progressive agenda have a “home-field advantage” because of Democrats’ long-standing control of the Illinois General Assembly, while Walz initially had to work with legislative Republicans in his first term.
Ultimately, Goldford said, voters make their decision about the White House by looking at the presidential candidate, not his running mate. But he acknowledged that in a close race, a number of factors can make a difference, and Walz could help Democrats in the key “Blue Wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, seen as critical to retaining the White House.
“He’s a balance to her,” Goldford said, referring to Harris’s California political upbringing. “Republicans will always paint him as a radical, right? We know that. But to the extent that people pay attention, they’ll notice that he comes from a very different political background than she does. So I think that’s the balance aspect to the extent that it matters.”
Born in rural Nebraska, Walz is a former high school social studies teacher and football coach who spent 24 years in the National Guard, retiring in 2005 as a sergeant major.
While choosing a running mate is a comfort factor, Harris has also expressed interest in someone with deep government experience. Walz served six terms in Congress, representing a largely rural district in southern Minnesota, before being elected governor.
Walz coined the term “weird” to describe the Republican presidential ticket, an adjective that Harris and her team quickly adopted. But, as Goldford predicted, Republicans in Illinois and around the country quickly labeled Walz “another radical leftist.”
Vance, who has had a rocky start since becoming Trump’s running mate on July 15, released a fundraising statement to supporters on Tuesday titled simply: “I’m going to crush Tim Walz.”
Democratic National Committee officials announced that Harris and Walz were officially certified by the party Tuesday as Democratic candidates for the White House, ahead of the party’s national convention in Chicago, which begins Aug. 19. A ceremonial roll call of states is planned for the event.
Tribune reporter Dan Petrella contributed.
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