After Democrats won full control of Minnesota’s statehouse two years ago, they quickly pressed for change, enshrining a right to abortion under state law, legalizing recreational marijuana, requiring that employers provide paid medical and family leave, and funding free meals for most school students.
Tim Walz, the governor, signed it all, along with practically everything else his fellow Democrats passed in 2023. He issued only one veto that year.
As Mr. Walz, now a vice-presidential candidate, prepares to debate Senator JD Vance on Tuesday, that single year in St. Paul could shed light on how Mr. Walz may govern, and the kinds of policies he might champion in the White House.
Mr. Walz’s supporters view 2023 as a time that revealed him to be a decisive leader who put an end to gridlock and pursued bold policies to help working class Minnesotans. His critics also point to the period as the clearest look at Mr. Walz’s liberal views. On his watch, they argue, Minnesota vastly expanded state programs in a manner that might have been politically popular in the short term, but could prove to be fiscally untenable.
Here’s a look at Mr. Walz’s most notable year as governor, and how he got there.
Running as a Unifier
After representing a largely rural district in Congress for 12 years, earning a reputation as a moderate who found common ground with Republicans on issues related to veterans and agriculture, Mr. Walz ran for governor in 2018.
Drawing attention to his experience as a public school geography teacher and football coach, Mr. Walz presented himself as a unifying leader in a polarizing time. His campaign motto was “One Minnesota.” His running mate, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, made history as the highest-ranking Native American elected official in the state. They won by more than 11 percentage points.
During Mr. Walz’s first term as governor, Republicans controlled the Minnesota Senate and Democrats struggled to pass major pieces of legislation. Mr. Walz also found himself in crisis mode, grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic and upheaval that followed the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.
In 2022, Minnesotans re-elected Mr. Walz by a slightly narrower margin — just under eight percentage points — but Democrats flipped the Senate, giving the party full control in St. Paul for the first time since 2014.
‘Burning Political Capital’
After Democrats won their trifecta, Mr. Walz met with the the party’s leaders, House Speaker Melissa Hortman and State Senator Kari Dziedzic, to talk about all of their priorities for the 2023 session, including bills that Republicans had blocked for years.
“Our lists were virtually identical,” Ms. Hortman said. The two legislators said they had heard the same complaint from voters repeatedly: They were sick of gridlock. Mr. Walz, Ms. Hortman and Ms. Dziedzic agreed to act swiftly and decisively.
Mr. Walz and his team kept close watch as major pieces of legislation advanced in the months that followed, Ms. Hortman and Ms. Dziedzic said in interviews, but he largely left the details of bill drafting and political lobbying to them.
Mostly, there was easy agreement among top Democrats, they said. Mr. Walz issued his only veto to block a measure that sought more generous compensation for ride-share drivers.
He took center stage during carefully choreographed bill signing ceremonies, often standing alongside Ms Flanagan. Such ceremonies celebrated a measure that enshrined a right to abortion in the state, a law that gave undocumented immigrants the right to obtain drivers licenses and a bill that protected transition-related medical care for transgender youths.
After the 2023 legislative session came to an end, Mr. Walz shared a campaign-style video shot with a drone that flew from inside the State Capitol to a bill-signing ceremony for the budget on the Capitol’s steps.
“It’s not about banking political capital for the next election,” Mr. Walz said in the video. “It’s about burning political capital to improve lives.”
‘Runaway Train’
Minnesota Republicans said the 2023 session left them reeling.
“As we looked at what the Democrats were pushing with their one-party control, wanting to spend, spend, spend, we kept raising the alarm and saying that this is not going to be sustainable,” said Representative Lisa Demuth, the Republican leader.
It is partly spending, conservatives in Minnesota say, that worries them, and leaves them scoffing at the notion that Mr. Walz could be portrayed as a centrist.
In 2023, Democrats assumed control with a $17 billion surplus in the state budget.
Despite the surplus, some critics said they feared that the rise in state spending on Mr. Walz’s watch — to $38 billion from $27 billion over the past year — could tip Minnesota into a deficit in the years ahead.
The free school meals initiative, which was projected to cost $400 million in 2024 and 2025, proved so popular that state officials had to revise that figure upward by an additional $80 million.
“I hope Republicans regain control of the Legislature and restore some political balance in Minnesota,” Tim Pawlenty, a former Republican governor, said in an email. “Otherwise, the progressive runaway train will continue to roll down the tracks with no brakes.”
Top Democrats call those fears overblown. They say the state under Mr. Walz’s watch has a balanced budget, low debt, a healthy labor market, an estimated $3.7 billion surplus and high marks from credit-rating agencies.
“The things that we have put in place are things that we’ve been working toward for a long time and that Minnesotans, clearly, at the ballot box, told us that they wanted us to deliver on,” Ms. Flanagan said in an interview.
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