Two years before he entered the Oval Office in 2008, former President Obama was one of the few high-ranking Democrats in the country to campaign for Tim Walz as he launched his political career.
“I just remember standing on stage and we came down, and there was someone there supporting me and saying, ‘Stop, let me take a picture,'” Walz said in 2017 about how Obama traveled to Minnesota to support him in his first run for Congress in 2006.
The couple, as well as then-Hennepin County District Attorney Amy Klobuchar, took a photo together, which Walz framed and hung in his home, he told the MinnPost in 2017.
“A future congressman, a future senator and a future president,” Walz said in his caption, pointing out that back in 2006, Obama was one of the few high-ranking Democrats to endorse him.
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Governor Tim Walz at a campaign rally on Saturday, August 10, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Another prominent Democrat, then-Senator John Kerry, was also scheduled to endorse Walz in the campaign that same year, but dropped out after Kerry came under fire for telling a group of college students, “If you try hard to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you’ll be stuck in Iraq.”
Walz was elected to the House of Representatives this year and held his seat until 2019, when he was elected governor of the Gopher State. Now the Minnesota Democrat has made it onto the 2024 White House ticket and is Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate.
Harris had a long and well-documented relationship with Obama before becoming the country’s vice president and the Democratic Party’s nominee for the 2024 presidential election. She was among the country’s first elected Democrats to support Obama’s first run for president in the 2008 election, beating out Hillary Clinton in favor of the then-Illinois senator.
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Harris was present when Obama announced his presidential candidacy in 2007. She first met him in 2004 when he was running for the U.S. Senate as a senator from the state of Illinois, the Washington Examiner previously reported.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Obama attend an event to mark the passage of the Affordable Care Act of 2010 in the East Room of the White House on April 5, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
As her political career progressed from district attorney in San Francisco to attorney general in California to senator, Harris was even dubbed the “female Obama” by some political analysts.
Walz’s relationship with Obama was neither particularly close nor long-lasting in public, but the 44th President of the United States supported Walz’s political career from the beginning and continued to support him in his various elections after he left the Oval Office.
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“I am proud to endorse coach, teacher, soldier and Congressman Tim Walz for Governor of Minnesota. Tim is running a campaign based on the idea that there is more that unites us than divides us. He is running for a united Minnesota – where everyone, no matter where they live or what they look like, has affordable health care, a quality education and the opportunity to get ahead. I worked with Tim in Congress and know firsthand that he has what it takes to make this happen,” Obama said in endorsing Walz’s gubernatorial campaign in 2018.
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“Minnesota, our rights and our future are on the ballot this year. That’s why I’m supporting Tim Walz and Peggy Flanagan,” Obama said in an ad during Walz’s 2022 re-election campaign for governor. “As governor, Tim balanced the state budget while cutting taxes for the middle class. He championed tax refunds to lower the cost of living. And he fought to make critical investments in public safety and education.”
The support and praise were mutual. In the 2008 election, for example, Walz spoke out for Obama and against Hillary Clinton.
Then-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), Senator Barack Obama (D-Illinois), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California), and other House and Senate Democrats at a rally at the Library of Congress denouncing “corrupt” Republican congressional leadership. (Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images)
“Southern Minnesota voters overwhelmingly supported Senator Barack Obama and his hopeful vision of positive change,” Walz said in 2008. He noted at the time, however, that he believed both Obama and Clinton were equipped to meet the challenge of overcoming “eight years of mismanagement under George W. Bush.”
Walz also expressed his support and admiration for former First Lady Michelle Obama in 2019 when he declared March 19 of that year as “Michelle Obama Day.”
“We are so grateful for all that you have done for children, families, women, and especially women of color. That is why we, as the Governor and Lieutenant Governor of the State of Minnesota, are pleased to proclaim March 13, 2019, as Michelle Obama Day across the State of Minnesota. Happy Michelle Obama Day,” Walz and Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s Lieutenant Governor, said in a video posted to X in 2019 when Michelle Obama visited the state on a book tour.
After Biden withdrew from the presidential campaign late last month amid growing doubts about his mental state, Harris began building her campaign team, bringing on board a host of insiders and advisers from Obama’s circle.
Harris brought on board Obama’s advisers, such as David Plouffe, who ran Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign and served as a senior adviser on Obama’s successful 2012 re-election campaign. Harris also brought on veteran Democratic activist Jennifer Palmieri as a senior adviser to Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff. Palmieri was White House communications director in the Obama administration and communications director for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 candidacy.
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Harris also appointed Obama’s former Attorney General Eric Holder to lead the vetting process of her potential running mates, while Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, who served as Obama’s deputy campaign manager in 2012 and Biden’s 2024 campaign manager, Chairman of the re-election campaignwas announced as Harris’ campaign manager.
The 44th president kept a low profile for days last month before expressing his support for Harris’ presidential candidacy.
Vice President Kamala Harris, accompanied by her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, enters a packed rally in Glendale, Arizona, Friday, August 9, 2024. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“I can’t make this phone call without telling my friend Kamala: I’m proud of you. This will be historic,” Michelle Obama said in a video commercial during a conversation with Harris.
“We called to tell Michelle that I couldn’t be prouder to support you and do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office,” former President Obama added.
Former President Obama (left) and President Biden arrive for a campaign fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on March 28, 2024. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Obama issued another statement of support this month when Walz was announced as Harris’s running mate, saying he and Michelle Obama “couldn’t be happier for Tim” and the nation.
“Governor Walz not only has the experience to be Vice President, he has the values and integrity we can be proud of. As governor, Tim helped families and businesses recover from the pandemic, implemented paid family leave, guaranteed abortion rights, and implemented common-sense gun safety measures to keep communities safe. But Tim’s hallmark is his ability to speak like a human being and treat everyone with decency and respect – which isn’t too surprising considering he served in the National Guard for 24 years and worked as a high school social studies teacher and football coach before being elected to Congress,” Obama wrote in his statement of support.
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Obama, along with a handful of other senior Democrats, will travel to Chicago next week to support the Harris-Walz ticket as the party prepares to take on Trump in the Nov. 5 election.
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