The Minnesota Governor Kamala Harris has picked as a running mate was in Iowa a year ago.
During an Iowa PBS interview just before he visited last year’s State Fair, Governor Tim Walz predicted the abortion issue would be a winning issue for Democrats in 2024. He said Republican-passed abortion restrictions have gone too far.
“They want to fight these culture wars, but they have stepped into this issue of personal freedoms in a way that I just think is unprecedented,” Walz said.
Walz joined Iowa Democratic Party chair Rita Hart on an edition of Iowa Press before appearing with Hart at the Iowa State Fair to offer an opposing message to the Republican presidential candidates campaigning there in hopes of winning support in the 2024 Iowa Caucuses.
Walz’s August 10, 2023 interview was just a month after Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed a law to ban most abortions after fetal activity can be detected, around the sixth week of a pregnancy. Walz said banning nearly all abortions is unpopular.
“Women in Iowa need this reproductive care because it’s health care and they are coming to Minnesota,” Walz said. “We’re glad to be good neighbors and to be there, but it’s absolutely outragous.”
In January of 2023, Walz signed the Protect Reproductive Options or “PRO Act” that guarantees a right to an abortion in Minnesota.
On Tuesday, the two top Democratic leaders in the Iowa legislature praised the pick of Walz to be their party’s vice presidential nominee. House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst said Walz “is a fighter for the things we (Midwesterners) care about.” Senate Democratic Leader Pam Jochum said Walz is someone who “tells it like it is and knows how to get things done.”
The chairman of the Iowa Republican Party issued a written statement yesterday, calling Walz a “radical, dangerous, irresponsible politician” who “cannot be in charge of the United States of America.”