Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to be her running mate, and now voters will turn their attention to his record on a variety of issues — including criminal justice.
Criminal justice reform advocates will likely praise many of the reforms Walz passed as governor, but Republicans are already attacking his records on crime, immigration, and his response to the uprisings following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, the Marshall Project reports.
Last year, Walz signed a law that overhauled the state’s criminal justice system, which was 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.’”
Walz has faced some criticism for how quickly he responded to protests in Minneapolis in 2020.
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.”
Walz tapped Minnesota AG Keith Ellison to prosecute the case against Derek Chauvin, a move which some observers credit for Chavin’s conviction and lengthy prison sentence.
Not long after Floyd’s murder, Walz advocated for and signed police reform bills. The package was 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.
Once an NRA favorite, Walz now promotes stricter gun laws — including funding for violence prevention programs, expanded background check rules, and tools to prevent people deemed a risk to themselves or others from owning guns.
On immigration, Walz signed a law allowing Minnesotans, regardless of their immigration status, to obtain a driver's license, and supported allowing people brought to the U.S. as children, sometimes called “dreamers”, a pathway to citizenship.
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