Walz Grew Up in Rural Nebraska, Where Finding a Date ‘Was Kind of a Problem’

Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, wasn’t always a Minnesotan. He was born in rural Nebraska in the small community of West Point, a town of roughly 3,500 people 60 miles northwest of Omaha.

His mother was a community activist and his father a public school administrator who died of cancer two years after Mr. Walz enlisted in the Army National Guard at age 17, according to The Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Mr. Walz moved several times during his childhood to various rural communities. He spent many of his younger years in Valentine, Neb., known for the hearts painted on its sidewalks. During his sophomore year of high school, he and his family moved to Butte, Neb., which has a population of less than 300.

Mr. Walz’s high school graduating class had just 25 students. He has said half of them were relatives.

He has joked that finding someone to date “was kind of a problem.”

Mr. Walz graduated from Chadron State College in 1989 with a degree in social science education before teaching for a year in China. When he returned, he taught high school in Nebraska, where he met his wife, Gwen, who was teaching at the same school.

In 1993, Mr. Walz was named Outstanding Young Nebraskan by the Nebraska Junior Chamber of Commerce for his service in the education, military and small-business communities, according to his campaign.

The next year, he got married and moved back to his wife’s southern Minnesota home.

Mr. Walz has a fondness for his Nebraska upbringing. Last year, he posted a photo of an old barn and a tractor on social media, saying he had visited the family farm in Butte, “saw some old high school buddies, and stopped by Pancake Days. All in all, a top-notch weekend.”

While Ms. Harris’s other top potential running mates came from battleground states that might have helped her rack up electoral votes, Mr. Walz’s ties to Nebraska could also play a role if voters there support him. Though the state is largely Republican, it is one of just two states that split their Electoral College votes. (The other is Maine.) Last election, one of Nebraska’s five votes went to President Biden.

Jane Kleeb, the chairwoman of the Nebraska Democratic Party, commended Mr. Walz’s “real and deep experiences in rural towns, veteran communities and of course with teachers.”

“Walz has an ability to make us all want to fall in love with our politics again because he believes in the reality of being in politics to change people’s lives,” Ms. Kleeb said. “Rural America is having our moment being represented on the national stage with heart, joy and showing the nation what it means to care about our neighbors.”