Now that Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate, voters will turn their attention to his record on a variety of issues, including criminal justice.
Crime will likely be a key theme on the campaign trail, and conservatives have already been attacking Walz on the issue. A statement from the RNC slammed him for his positions on immigration and policing. Meanwhile, criminal justice reform advocates have praised some of the sweeping changes signed by Walz, who became governor in 2018 and won reelection in 2022.
Here are five key things to know about his record:
Last year, Walz signed a law that overhauled the state’s criminal justice system.
In 2023, Walz signed into law a major criminal justice reform bill aimed at drastically cutting the number of people unnecessarily under probation and parole supervision, reducing the number of people who land back in prison after release and clearing some of the obstacles for people returning home, among other provisions. Prior to this law, people could be sentenced to probation for decades, which experts say leads to more people landing back in prison but little additional public safety. Because of the changes, Minnesota has 5,470 fewer people on probation, according to Lauren Krisai of the Justice Action Network, which helped shepherd the reforms. “There weren't a lot of governors that supported this stuff in 2023, so the fact that he was friendly was huge,” Krisai said. “There was just this national narrative that crime was going up; we should hold off on any reforms. In Minnesota, they were like, ‘We’re going to ignore the national narrative and pass good policy.’”
Other major changes that fell under the auspices of that reform package include: eliminating life without parole for crimes committed as a teenager; enacting a “clean slate” provision that automatically expunges certain crimes from people’s records after a period of time; restoring the right to vote to people on probation or parole; and legalizing recreational marijuana. This year, Walz also signed a bill to end prison gerrymandering; at the next Census, people in prison will count as residents of the neighborhoods where they lived before they were incarcerated, not the towns where they’re locked up.
Walz, who tapped his attorney general to prosecute the officer who murdered George Floyd, also faced some criticism for how quickly he responded to protests in 2020.
Amid protests that rocked Minneapolis and the nation after the murder of George Floyd, Walz faced tough choices about how to handle the unrest. As peaceful protests turned to looting and arson, the city’s mayor called Walz and asked for help from the National Guard, telling him the local police would not be able to handle the situation on their own. But Walz waited an additional day before signing an executive order to send the troops in. In the meantime, a five-mile stretch of Minneapolis and St. Paul burned, including the police precinct and hundreds of businesses. To his critics, that hesitation was a sign that “he froze under pressure, under a calamity, as people’s properties were being burned down,” as Republican State Sen. Warren Limmer told the New York Times.
To Walz’ supporters, he was sensitive to protesters’ frustrations. Kevin Reese, a community organizer who was involved in the protests and has since worked with the governor on criminal justice reforms, said the governor didn't want to bring more harm to an already tense situation. "He read the room."
At the time of Floyd’s murder, Justin Terrell was executive director of Council for Minnesotans of African Heritage, a state agency meant to empower Black people statewide. Walz came down to the corner where Floyd was murdered to talk to people “while the city was still smoldering,” Terrell said. “No photo ops. He wrote on the ground, ‘Justice Now’” in sidewalk chalk. “That said a lot to me.”
Walz also tapped Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to prosecute Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in Floyd’s murder, a move that observers say was key to Chauvin’s conviction and lengthy prison sentence.
Not long after Floyd’s murder, Walz advocated for and signed police reform bills.
As the protests continued, Walz called a special session of the state lawmakers, challenging a divided legislature to pass a series of police reform bills in July 2020. Walz signed the package, described by the local press as “some of the most substantial changes to law enforcement and police accountability in a generation,” less than 60 days after Floyd’s death under Chauvin’s knee. The law bans chokeholds, “warrior-style” training that encourages “aggressive conduct,” and requires officers to step in if a colleague is using excessive force, among other major changes.
“This call to a special session is not a call just from me. It's that primal scream you heard from people on the streets demanding justice, demanding it now and demanding us step into this moment,” Walz said at the time.
State officials under Walz also negotiated a consent decree with the city of Minneapolis over policing practices that the state human rights department said were discriminatory. The 144-page document is binding on the city and increases police accountability among other changes, though critics argue the accountability provisions are not strong enough. The Walz administration also reinvigorated the board that licenses and disciplines police officers statewide in the wake of the George Floyd protests.
Once an NRA favorite, Walz now promotes stricter gun laws.
The massive criminal justice bill that Walz signed last year included a package of gun safety measures. The law provided funding for violence prevention programs, expanded background check rules, and tools to prevent people deemed a risk to themselves or others from owning guns. It was praised by gun-control advocacy groups like Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action as a way to curb gun violence. But gun rights groups slammed it.
Walz was once a darling of gun rights groups, according to the New York Times. Early in his career, he was endorsed by the National Rifle Association, a conservative group promoting gun rights, and Guns & Ammo magazine included him in their list of top politicians for gun owners in 2016. But after Walz began supporting stricter gun laws, he fell out of favor with the NRA, bragging the group now gives him “straight F’s.” Walz said the rating proved that he was uniquely positioned to build the coalition necessary to finally pass common sense gun legislation.
Walz’ record on immigration includes driver’s license law, support for a pathway to citizenship.
Last year, Walz signed a law allowing Minnesotans, regardless of their immigration status, to obtain a driver's license. A press release from the governor’s office said the new law would “increase safety across Minnesota by ensuring that all drivers are licensed, insured, and have taken driver’s education courses.” Walz has also supported allowing people brought to the U.S. as children, sometimes called “dreamers”, a pathway to citizenship.
Immigration has been a hot button issue during the presidential election, and former President Donald Trump was quick to attack Walz for being pro-immigrant. Trump, this year’s Republican presidential nominee, has falsely claimed there is a “migrant crime wave.” Data analysis shows no connection between undocumented immigration and crime, and research shows immigrants are significantly less likely to commit crimes than people born in the U.S.
Learn about how The Marshall Project is covering the 2024 election’s criminal justice and immigration issues across the U.S. and in our local news teams’ cities.
