The congressman from the 1st District is Tim Walz, a Democrat first elected in 2006. Walz grew up in Nebraska and joined the Army National Guard when he was 17. When he retired from the military 24 years later, in 2005, he held the rank of command sergeant major. Walz earned his teaching degree in Nebraska, taught school in China for a year through a Harvard University program, and later established an educational travel company that helped high school students study in China. He and his wife moved to Minnesota in 1996 to take teaching jobs in Mankato. There, he taught high school geography and coached the high school football team to two state championships. Read More

The congressman from the 1st District is Tim Walz, a Democrat first elected in 2006. Walz grew up in Nebraska and joined the Army National Guard when he was 17. When he retired from the military 24 years later, in 2005, he held the rank of command sergeant major. Walz earned his teaching degree in Nebraska, taught school in China for a year through a Harvard University program, and later established an educational travel company that helped high school students study in China. He and his wife moved to Minnesota in 1996 to take teaching jobs in Mankato. There, he taught high school geography and coached the high school football team to two state championships.

Walz got into politics relatively late in life—he was 42 when he ran for Congress. In 2004, President George W. Bush made an appearance in the area as part of his re-election campaign. Walz took two students to the event, where campaign staffers demanded to know whether he supported the president and barred the students from entering after discovering one had a sticker for Democratic candidate John Kerry on his wallet. Walz suggested that it might be bad PR for the Bush campaign to arrest an Army veteran, and he and the students were allowed in. Walz said the experience sparked his interest in politics, first as a volunteer for the Kerry campaign and then as a congressional candidate. “I don’t know if I’d necessarily call it an epiphany, but it was definitely one of those things that pushed me into” politics, Walz said.

In 2006, Walz challenged six-term Republican Rep. Gil Gutknecht, an affable conservative who won re-election two years earlier with 60%. The district had sent Republicans to Washington for 100 of the previous 114 years, and Gutknecht was not considered especially vulnerable. Walz was not a polished campaigner. His speaking style was didactic compared to the ease with which Gutknecht, a former auctioneer, handled a crowd. But he struck a chord with his message of declining middle-class wages, tax cuts for the wealthy and Congress’ failure to hold Bush accountable on the Iraq war. He ran as a political outsider and painted Gutknecht as too closely tied to Bush.

By October, Republicans began to take the threat against Gutknecht seriously. The incumbent sought to halt his slide by characterizing Walz as a liberal who was out of sync with this socially conservative district. Walz’s support for abortion rights and his opposition to a constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage fell outside district norms, but his military experience and football coaching gave an aura of authenticity to his campaign that made him harder to attack. On Election Day, Walz defeated Gutknecht 53%-47%. Walz carried Democratic areas around Mankato and Austin and won Rochester’s Olmsted County by more than 1,800 votes (52%-48%). He became the highest-ranking enlisted soldier ever to serve in Congress.

Arriving in the House, Walz was chosen by his peers to share the freshman class presidency with Rep. Paul Hodes, a New Hampshire Democrat. Walz established a mostly centrist voting record. He signed as a co-sponsor of antiwar Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern’s 2009 bill calling for Obama to devise an “exit strategy” for removing troops from Afghanistan. He opposed the creation of the Troubled Assets Relief Program to assist the financial services industry because he said it didn’t do enough to protect homeowners from foreclosure. His championing of gun owners’ rights earned him the National Rifle Association’s endorsement in 2010. But he backed most of President Obama’s major initiatives, including health care reform and the cap-and-trade bill to reduce carbon emissions thought responsible for global warming.

With a seat on the Agriculture Committee, Walz secured increased access to credit and conservation opportunities for farmers in the 2008 farm bill. His district had been among the leading recipients of federal largesse through the farm program. On another local issue, Walz lobbied to have a high-speed train route from the Twin Cities to Chicago go through Rochester. He also got a bill through the House in September 2010 broadening the definition of a veteran to include those serving at least 20 years in the National Guard or Reserve but who did not spend at least 180 consecutive days called up on federal status.

Walz has tried to push several clean government proposals. In March 2011, Walz joined Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y. in re-introducing the STOCK Act, which would prohibit members of Congress from insider trading. Senators and representatives are not barred from using nonpublic information to invest in the markets, a practice that gained widespread criticism after a November 2011 investigative report by 60 Minutes. In May 2011, Walz introduced a bill to end tax breaks for luxury yacht owners, who can get favorable tax treatment if the boats have kitchens and bathrooms and are therefore classified as residences. According to an ABC News report in December 2010, Walz was one of three members of Congress to return his salary raise to the Treasury Department to pay down the national debt.

Walz was initially a top target for Republicans in the 2008 election. But the party’s preferred contenders decided not to run. National Republicans turned their focus to keeping their existing seats. Walz breezed to a 63%-33% victory, winning all of the counties. Two years later, he faced a much tougher race. His Republican opponent was state Rep. Randy Demmer, a Republican farmer who slammed Walz’s support of the Democratic agenda and drew financial help from outside Republican groups. But Walz enjoyed a huge financial advantage, thanks in part to money raised from Mayo Clinic employees. He also highlighted a video of his opponent seeming receptive to the idea of partially privatizing Social Security. Demmer denied the charge, but had trouble persuading voters that Walz was too liberal. Walz won 49%-44%, with two other candidates drawing the remaining votes.