Stillwater, Minnesota — Vice President Kamala Harris’ choice of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate makes health care a top issue in the final sprint to the presidency. November presidential election.
Walz, a 60-year-old former high school teacher and football coach, supported left-leaning health care initiatives during his two terms as governor and while serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2019. He also leads a health care powerhouse state: Minnesota is home to both the nation’s largest health insurer, UnitedHealth Group, and one of its most prestigious hospital systems, the Mayo Clinic.
Republicans have used her record to portray the Harris-Walz duo as an extremist party on health care, while Democrats say Walz’s efforts to lower drug costs and preserve access to abortion are mainstream positions that appeal to swing voters. Regardless, her selection puts health care front and center, underscoring the primacy of the national battle over abortion access as well as voters’ deep anxiety about skyrocketing health care costs.
Many of Walz’s positions overlap with Harris’s.
He fought for access to abortionby signing a bill to codify abortion rights in the state, and in March, visiting a Planned Parenthood clinic with the vice president.
He supported a congressional bill that would allow the federal government to negotiate drug prices under Medicare, a health insurance program for seniors and disabled people. On August 15, the Biden administration released new measures, reduced prices for 10 drugs under the program resulting from negotiations between the government and drug manufacturers. The reduced costs will come into effect in 2026.
As governor, Walz signed a bill in 2020 to cap out-of-pocket costs for insulin at $35 per month for eligible residents who urgently need the medication. Two years later, President Joe Biden did the same for all Medicare patients.
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Walz mandated mask-wearing in most indoor public spaces. He extended an executive stay-at-home order in 2020, prompting former President Donald Trump to post “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” on X, the social platform then called Twitter.
“He has common sense about policy and issues,” said Andy Slavitt, a former UnitedHealth executive and former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “He’s not an ideologue. He’s an independent thinker who cares about people who don’t have resources,” said Slavitt, who served as a senior adviser to the Biden administration’s COVID response team.
Walz also advocated for fertility treatments, sharing his personal story of how he and his wife, Gwen, relied on them to conceive. In vitro fertilization is increasingly under threat By some abortion opponents, despite his widespread popularity, his direct knowledge of fertility challenges adds political muscle.
“Walz was very eloquent and passionate about his experience with IVF, and it resonated with people on both sides of the aisle,” said Christoper Sheeron, founder and president of Action for Health, a national nonprofit advocacy organization.
Minnesota Republicans say Walz’s positions on health care run counter to the Democratic ticket. They criticize his 2021 COVID vaccination or mandatory testing of state employees, his support for legislation codifying abortion rights, his support for the Legalization of recreational marijuana and a bill he signed to extend public health coverage to some immigrants without legal residency.
“Under Governor Walz, we have seen one of the most radical and left-wing agendas in the country. While Americans seek unity, Walz has a history of implementing extreme policies that only serve to divide us further,” Minnesota State Senate Republican Leader Mark Johnson said in a statement. “He has put our state on a path to a publicly run health care system and championed restrictive health care mandates that limit Minnesotans’ access to lifesaving care.”
Tracy Mitchell, a Minnesota resident, said that before Walz’s selection, she was inclined to support former President Donald Trump in November because she believed he would do more to reduce health care costs.
This announcement reinforced her decision: she is voting for Trump.
“I have three kids, and health care is expensive,” said Mitchell, 38, of Ham Lake, while visiting Stillwater, Minn., with her family. She is the director of program operations for a mental health clinic.
“The way he’s handled COVID and in terms of health care, I think he’s too extreme,” she said.
Democrats, however, hope that a greater focus on health care will give them an advantage in elections by tapping into voters’ concerns about pocketbook issues in key states.
According to a May poll by the Pew Research Center, 48% of Republicans or GOP-leaning adults say health care affordability is a major problem in the country. Sixty-five percent of Democrats or Democratic-leaning adults agree.
The main concerns include illegal immigration, the federal budget deficit, gun violence and drug addiction.
Three in four adults said they are very or somewhat worried about being able to afford unexpected medical bills, according to a survey conducted in January and February by KFF, a nonprofit health information organization that includes KFF Health News.
“Republicans have always suffered because they talk about health care in economic terms,” said William Pierce, a senior director at APCO Worldwide, a global consulting and advocacy firm, and a former Republican congressional aide. “Democrats talk about it as a personal issue. Walz’s selection gives them a better opportunity to push on this issue.”
Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, Walz’s counterpart on the Republican ticket, has less experience in health care. But he has sought to signal concern about rising costs and barriers to accessing care.
During a recent visit to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Vance said the government must do more to preserve access to health care in rural America.
In a July 2017 op-ed published by The New York Times, well before he ran for the Senate as a Republican, Vance expressed support for some provisions of the Affordable Care Act and criticized the GOP’s push to repeal the law because, he said, the proposal “withdraws support from the poor.”
Since joining Trump’s ticket, Vance has aligned his views with Trump’s on the ACA — a law Trump tried and failed to repeal while president.
“The difference is between those who defend the ACA and those who would repeal it; Walz’s choice makes that contrast clearer than ever,” said Anthony Wright, the new executive director of Families USA, a nonpartisan organization focused on health care access and affordability.
Vance supported the idea of letting the Federal government negotiates health insurance Drug prices – a rare point of agreement on health policy with Democrats.
Like Trump, he opposes adopting rehabilitative care for transgender minors. But he has taken tougher positions than the former president on abortion — a vulnerability that Democrats have sought to exploit. Public support for abortion rights has surged since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade In 2022, many Republican-led states have decided to impose strict bans.
Both Democratic and Republican campaigns are facing renewed scrutiny over their positions on health care. California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis’ super PAC, Californians for Choice, released an ad this month claiming that Vance supports a national abortion ban, “taking away our freedom.”
Like Trump, Vance has recently said states should decide specific abortion policies, but he has previously supported a nationwide abortion ban.
Trump’s campaign, meanwhile, dubbed Walz “Tampon Tim” because of a state law he signed requiring menstrual products to be available to “all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4-12, according to a plan developed by the school district.”
A recent Trump campaign ad called Walz “too weird. Too radical.”
But Walz’s addition to the ticket has energized Democratic voters concerned about health issues, like Angel Palm, 32, a life coach for people with disabilities who lives in Fridley, Minnesota.
“My son has autism and medical bills. This is so important,” she told KFF Health News. “I’m so happy.”
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism on health issues and is one of the main operational programs of KFF — the independent source of health policy research, polling and journalism.
