By Jeff Ordower, 350 Action

Today Kamala Harris selected Tim Walz as her running mate. As I was walking to work, I got an excited set of texts. For those of us who are progressive, there really couldn’t be a better pick. Walz is a fantastic communicator and a real person. As governor of Minnesota, he presided over a Democratic legislative trifecta that won 100% renewable electricity by 2030, increased the franchise, and won billions in home care, child care and free school lunches for all. As a communicator, Walz said what no one else has said, that the Republican agenda was just “weird.”

Of course, there is a part of me that had a moment of disappointment. It is unfortunate that it doesn’t yet seem politically viable for a historic candidacy like Harris’ to have en equally effective Governor like Whitmer on the ticket. There have been so many generations of two white men.  

And there was also a moment of anger. Governor Walz, who did whatever he could do to approve the Line 3 pipeline that runs through sovereign Indigenous lands, is being championed as a climate leader.  But politics is about winning majorities, not about winning all our issues. Or rather, if we want to win everything, we also have to build the majoritarian coalition that not only is motivated, but is also active enough to beat powerful fossil fuel lobbies, and in the case of Line 3, the Laborers Union as well. We recognize both the threats of the Right and the possibilities of governance. Governor Walz, with Democratic champions in the Minnesota legislature, showed what might be a national model of progressive governance. We won’t win everything, but we can certainly make a lot of progress.