After days of speculation, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has named Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate.

Walz, 60, was elected Minnesota governor in 2019 after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives for the state for 12 years.

Prior to a career in politics, Walz was a high school teacher and also served in the National Guard for 24 years.

After he received his bachelor’s degree in social science education from Chadron State College, he taught high school students in China for a year as part of the first government-sanctioned groups of U.S. educators to teach in China.

He has also served as a visiting fellow of international relations at the Macau Polytechnic University, in Macau, China.

He and his wife Gwen honeymooned in China and later opened Educational Travel Adventures in 1994, a company that organized educational exchanges for U.S. high school students to China.

In a debate on CSPAN for the Minnesota First Congressional District house seat in 2006, Walz said,

“What we need in education, what we need in the military, and what we need when I’m fostering cultural exchanges with China is real solutions.”

He also said he is someone who has, “patterned their life on being the best teacher I could be, by achieving the highest rank in the military that I could achieve. And by starting cooperations with an incredibly important area of the world with China and taking hundreds and hundreds of students to learn that too. I think that gives me a unique perspective that is a lot more Minnesota and a lot less Washington.”

As governor, Walz has signed into law an act that made abortion a “fundamental right” in the state, as well as access to birth control and fertility treatments.

He has also signed an executive order protecting the right to gender-affirming health care, and signed a “red flag” law that allows for firearms to be removed from anyone deemed a danger.

He legalized recreational marijuana use in the state and passed paid family and medical leave for state workers. He also signed a bill that ensured all K-12 students access to free breakfast and lunch in school.

He has been criticized for his delay in activating the Minnesota National Guard to restore order in the protests and riots that occurred after the murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin in 2020.

Conservatives have also criticized Walz for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state, including instituting a mask mandate.

Harris’ opponent former President Donald Trump wrote in an email to his supporters that Walz would unleash “HELL ON EARTH” by opening the borders of the United States.

After announcing Walz as her pick, Harris wrote on her X account “As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he’s delivered for working families like his. It’s great to have him on the team.”

Walz himself wrote on X that it was an “honor of a lifetime” to join Harris’ campaign.

“Vice President Harris is showing us the politics of what’s possible. It reminds me a bit of the first day of school,” he wrote.