OHIO Senator and Donald Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, and newly announced Democratic VP pick, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, have drastically different views on pressing controversial topics.
Walz was picked as the Democratic vice presidential candidate by Kamala Harris on Tuesday.
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The Minnesota governor has received endorsements from Dems including President Joe Biden and former president Barack Obama, but Republicans are skeptical of what he’ll bring to the White House.
After Harris’ announcement, Vance was stopped by Fox News while he boarded his plane.
Vance told reporters he left Walz a voicemail congratulating his nomination and looked forward to a “robust conversation,” per Fox News.
“Maybe he’ll call me back, maybe he won’t,” Vance said.
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When asked to comment on Walz, the senator quickly shifted gears and called him a “San Francisco liberal.”
He also said the governor’s record was a “joke.”
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Reporters also asked if Vance and the new VP pick had any similarities to which he responded, “Well, look, I mean, yeah, we’re white guys from the Midwest. I guess there are similarities there,” per the New York Times.
Vance also agreed to debate Walz once he secured the official nomination.
ABORTION
While Vance has equated abortion with murder, Walz has gone out of his way to make sure abortion is an option for women in his state.
In 2023, the governor signed a bill codifying the right to abortion in Minnesota, per Politico.
Walz then joined Harris in March at a Planned Parenthood health center, marking it as the first visit by a sitting vice president to an abortion clinic.
During the same month, he confirmed his stance saying, “Abortion is health care. I think old white men need to learn how to talk about this a little more,” he said on CNN.
“And I think the biggest thing is, listen to women, listen to what they’re saying.”
Kamala Harris’ full statement on her VP pick
Kamala Harris confirmed her running mate in a text blast to supporters, then shared a lengthy post on Instagram explaining her decision.
“I am proud to announce that I’ve asked @walzforgovernor to be my running mate,” Harris wrote in the Instagram post.
“One of the things that stood out to me about Tim is how his convictions on fighting for middle-class families run deep. It’s personal.
“He grew up in a small town in Nebraska, spending summers working on his family’s farm. His father died of cancer when he was 19, and his family relied on Social Security survivor benefit checks to make ends meet. At 17, he enlisted in the National Guard, serving for 24 years. He used his GI Bill benefits to go to college, and become a teacher. He served as both the football coach and the advisor of the Gay-Straight Alliance.
“I share this background both because it’s impressive in its own right, and because you see in no uncertain terms how it informs his record. He worked with Republicans to pass infrastructure investments. He cut taxes for working families. He passed a law to provide paid family and medical leave to Minnesotan families.
“He made Minnesota the first state in the country to pass a law providing constitutional abortion protections after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and as an avid hunter, he passed a bill requiring universal background checks for gun purchases.
“But what impressed me most about Tim is his deep commitment to his family: Gwen, Gus, and Hope. Doug and I look forward to working with him and Gwen to build an administration that reflects our shared values.
“Whether you are a supporter, a volunteer, a donor, a member of our staff, or your name is on the ticket: you are part of the people-powered campaign that is going to defeat Donald Trump.
“We are going to build a great partnership. We are going to build a great team. We are going to win this election.
“So let’s get to work. Join our campaign at the link in my bio.”
The dad of two has also been open about his wife’s, Gwen, experiences using in vitro fertilization to have their children.
“It’s not by chance that we named our daughter Hope,” he told the Star Tribune about his daughter, Hope, 16.
Vance, however, does not share the same views on the controversial subject.
Trump’s running mate has previously stressed how important he views abortion.
“Abortion was the first political issue I can ever remember caring about, and even after 20 years, it still shocks me that progressives just ignore there’s an innocent life involved,” he wrote on X in 2021.
Who is Governor Tim Walz?
Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate after weeks of chaos for the Democratic Party. Here’s what to know about her pick.
Democratic politician Walz became the 41st governor of Minnesota in 2019.
The 60-year-old is a retired teacher and former non-commissioned officer in the Army National Guard.
Walz graduated from Minnesota State University, Mankato in 2001 and Chadron State College in 1989.
He has been married to his wife and fellow teacher Gwen Walz since 1994.
The pair share two children named Hope and Gus, who were conceived through IVF and fertility treatments, per the Star Tribune.
Hope graduated from a Montana college, while Gus attends public high school in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Walz was born in West Point, Nebraska, in 1964, and grew up in Valentine.
He is known for being punctual and graduated from Butte High School in Butte, Nebraska, in 1982.
In 1989, he taught English in China and learned to speak Mandarin.
Walz quit drinking alcohol after he got a DWI in Nebraska in 1995.
Troopers pulled him over for going 96 mph in a 55 mph zone, and a breathalyzer test found his blood alcohol concentration was .128, according to court records.
After he was arrested, he struck a plea deal to reduce the charges, which was a topic of conversation when he first ran for Congress in 2006.
When state troopers drive Walz in the state SUV as part of his governorship, he sits in the front passenger seat because he gets carsick in the back seats, per the Star Tribune.
When Walz was 19, his father died of lung cancer.
His mother, Darlene Rose, still lives in Nebraska and sometimes visits her son at the Capitol.
Vance scored an A+ with the Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion group, because of his record as a Senator, per its website.
He also said he has “voted consistently to defend the lives of the unborn and infants,” per the Washington Post.
In 2023, Vance opposed Issue 1 on the ballot which would enshrine reproductive rights into Ohio’s constitution, per the Washington Post.
The bill passed in the state with 56 percent of votes.
IMMIGRATION
Vance and Walz share a polarizing view on immigration — Walz hopes to provide undocumented immigrants citizenship while Vance believes in deportation.
When Walz was a member of Congress, he was on board for a sticker screening of refugees, however, he shifted his views when he became governor.
In 2023, he signed a bill that allowed undocumented immigrants to be eligible for Minnesota driver’s licenses.
He argued the bill would make roads safer by reducing unlicensed drivers, per the press release.
Walz doesn’t have a clear public record for his views on border policies, per The New York Times.
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Vance however, has made his views very clear.
He introduced a bill in 2023 that was intended to crack down on illegal visa overstays, per the Washington Post.
Vance has also blamed migration through the southern border for the reason why housing costs have gone up and wages have plummeted in the United States.
On Monday, Vance said he believes the US should deport the about 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country, he told Fox News.
“You start with the most violent people, the people who have criminal records,” he added that to do this was by making it harder for migrants to get work in the US.
GUN RIGHTS
Similar to his shift in beliefs about immigration, Walz also changed his mind about gun control.
The governor of Minnesota previously held an “A” rating from the NRA, according to the Washington Post.
However, after the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida, he was pushed by his daughter, Hope, to change his mind.
Trump campaign’s full statement on Kamala Harris’ VP pick Tim Walz
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign issued a fiery statement after Democrat Kamala Harris chose Minnesota Governor Tom Walz as her running mate.
“It’s no surprise that San Francisco liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coast wannabe Tim Walz as her running-mate — Walz has spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State,” the statement from Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt reads.
“While Walz pretends to support Americans in the Heartland, when the cameras are off, he believes that rural America is ‘mostly cows and rocks.’
“From proposing his own carbon-free agenda, to suggesting sticker 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.
“If Walz won’t tell voters the truth, we will: just like Kamala Harris, Tim Walz is a dangerously liberal extremist, and the Harris-Walz California dream is every American’s nightmare.”
As governor, Walz signed a bill that included universal background checks and a red flag law that ensures no dangerous person possesses a gun or has to surrender the ones they own.
Vance, however, rejected tougher gun laws and has been praised by the National Rifle Association for his views.
In 2022, he wanted to abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives which enforces federal gun laws.
“Joe Biden’s ATF is illegally collecting information on the gun transactions of millions of law-abiding citizens & putting them into a digital database,” he posted to X.
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“As Senator, I’ll not only lead the fight against Biden’s unconstitutional gun database, I’ll fight to ABOLISH the ATF.”
Vance himself owns a rife and passed the routine background check to purchase it, per ABC affiliate WLWT.
JD VANCE VS TIM WALZ
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Senator JD Vance both had full lives before becoming politicians.
Walz and Vance both served in the military. Walz was in the Army National Guard for 24 years, and JD Vance was in the US Marine Corps for four years.
The veterans both share a love for Diet Mountain Dew.
However, Walz spent most of his early adulthood as a high school teacher and taught for one year in China after graduating college.
In 1999, he was the faculty advisor for the first ever Gay Straight Alliance at the high school he worked for.
Walz didn’t foray into politics until 2004 when he volunteered for John Kerry’s presidential campaign.
In 2006, he ran for Congress and beat incumbent Republican Gil Gutknecht. He served until 2019, when he was elected Minnesota’s governor.
Vance, meanwhile, raised himself from a tumultuous childhood in Ohio and went to college after serving in the Marines.
After graduating from Ohio State University, he attended Yale Law School, where he started writing his bestselling memoir Hillbilly Elegy.
Vance briefly worked in politics before moving to the technology sector in California, where he met venture capitalist Peter Thiel.
In 2016, he published his book and became a household name in popular culture.
Vance, who was once staunchly anti-Donald Trump, ran for Senate on a pro-MAGA platform in 2022 and was elected with Trump’s blessing.