Two years before winning the Oval Office in 2008, former President Obama was one of the few high-profile Democrats in the nation to campaign for Tim Walz when he first launched a career in politics.
“I just remember standing on that stage, and we were coming off it, and there was someone there who was a supporter of mine who said, ‘Stop, let me take a picture,’” Walz said in 2017 of how Obama traveled to Minnesota to support him during his first congressional run in 2006.
The pair, as well as then-Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar, took a photo together, which Walz framed and hanged in his house, he told the MinnPost in 2017.
“A future congressman, a future senator, and a future president,” Walz said he captioned the photo, noting that Obama was one of the few high-profile Democrats at the time to support him back in 2006.
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Gov. Tim Walz at a campaign rally in Las Vegas on Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024 in Las Vegas. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Another high-profile Democrat, then-Sen. John Kerry, was also scheduled to join Walz on the campaign trail that year but canceled after Kerry came under fire for infamously telling a group of college students if “you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”
Walz was elected to the House that year, holding onto the seat until 2019, when he was elected as governor of the Gopher State. Now, the Minnesota Democrat has landed on the 2024 ticket for the White House, joining Vice President Kamala Harris as her running mate.
Harris has had a long and documented history with Obama ahead of becoming the nation’s vice president and the Democratic Party’s 2024 nominee. She was among the first elected Democrats in the nation to endorse Obama’s first run for president in the 2008 election, snubbing Hillary Clinton in favor of the then-Illinois senator.
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Harris was in attendance when Obama announced his candidacy for president in 2007, after first meeting him in 2004 when he was an Illinois state senator running for the U.S. Senate, the Washington Examiner previously reported.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Former President Obama attend an event to mark the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act in the East Room of the White House on April 5, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
As Harris built her political career from San Francisco district attorney to California attorney general and then senator, Harris was even dubbed “the female Obama” by some political analysts.
Walz’s relationship with Obama has not been as publicly cozy or longstanding, but the country’s 44th president has been supportive of Walz’s political career from the start, and he continued endorsing him in his various elections after he left the Oval Office.
“I am proud to endorse coach, teacher, soldier, and Congressman Tim Walz for Governor of Minnesota. Tim is running a campaign on the idea that there is more that unites than divides us. He is running for one Minnesota—where everyone, no matter where they live or what they look like, has affordable healthcare, a quality education, and the chance to get ahead. I’ve worked with Tim in Congress, and I know firsthand he has what it takes to get it done,” Obama said in his endorsement of 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 in 2022 during Walz’s re-election campaign for governor. “As governor, Tim balanced the state budget while cutting taxes for the middle class. He has pushed for tax rebate checks to help with the cost of living. And he has fought to make critical investments in public safety and education.”
The endorsements and praise have been mutual, with Walz endorsing Obama over Hillary Clinton in the 2008 election.
Then-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other House and Senate Democrats at a rally at the Library of Congress decrying the “corrupt” Republican Congressional leadership. (Scott J. Ferrell/Congressional Quarterly/Getty Images)
“The voters of southern Minnesota overwhelmingly supported Senator Barack Obama and his hopeful vision for positive change,” Walz said in 2008, though he noted at the time that he believed both Obama and Clinton were up to the challenge of addressing “eight years of mismanagement from George W. Bush.”
Walz also declared his support and admiration for former first lady Michelle Obama in 2019, when he declared March 19 of that year “Michelle Obama Day.”
“We are so grateful for everything that you’ve done for children, for families, for women, and especially for women of color. That’s why, because of all the work you’ve done, we are happy as governor, lieutenant governor of the State of Minnesota to proclaim March, 13, 2019 Michelle Obama day across the state of Minnesota. Happy Michelle Obama Day,” Walz and Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said in a video posted to X in 2019 while Michelle Obama was visiting the state during a book tour.
After Biden’s departure from the presidential race late last month amid mounting concerns surrounding his mental acuity, Harris began building out her campaign team, most notably adding a bevy of Obama orbit insiders and advisers to her election effort.
Harris brought on Obama advisers, such as David Plouffe, who managed Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008 and served as a senior aide to Obama’s successful 2012 re-election effort. Harris also brought on veteran Democratic operative Jennifer Palmieri as senior adviser to Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff. Palmieri served as White House director of communications under the Obama administration and as director of communications for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 White House bid.
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Harris also tapped Obama’s former attorney general, Eric Holder, to lead the vetting process of her potential running mates, while Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, who worked as Obama’s 2012 deputy campaign manager and Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign chair, was announced as Harris’ campaign manager.
The 44th president had remained coy for days last month before offering his endorsement of Harris’ presidential run.
Vice President Kamala Harris, accompanied by her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, walks out into a packed rally in Glendale, Arizona, on Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“I can’t have this phone call without saying to my girl Kamala: I am proud of you. This is going to be historic,” Michelle Obama said in a video endorsement while speaking to Harris.
“We called to say Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse 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 fundraising event at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on March 28, 2024. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Obama released another endorsement this month when Walz was announced as Harris’ running mate, saying he and Michelle Obama “couldn’t be happier for Tim” and the nation.
“Governor Walz doesn’t just have the experience to be vice president, he has the values and the integrity to make us proud. As governor, Tim helped families and businesses recover from the pandemic, established paid family leave, guaranteed the right to an abortion, and put common sense gun safety measures in place to keep communities safe. But Tim’s signature is his ability to talk like a human being and treat everyone with decency and respect – not all that surprising considering the fact that 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 endorsement.
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Obama, along with a handful of other high-profile Democrats, will head to Chicago next week in support of the Harris-Walz ticket as the party prepares to face Trump in the polls on Nov. 5.
