Tim Walz Seeks to Build Trust, One T-shirt at a Time

Style|Tim Walz Seeks to Build Trust, One T-shirt at a Time

A Nebraska native with a gun license and workwear in his closet, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota is, of course, now also the Democratic candidate for vice president of the United States. Whether in a blocky sports jacket and tie or a T-shirt and Red Wing boots, Mr. Walz brings to the Democratic ticket a kind of down-home lack of fuss that is seldom seen anymore in politics.

Though Mr. Walz outpaced tough competition to become Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, he still has managed to seem as unassuming as the barn jackets, workboots and sometimes rumpled khakis that are his wardrobe staples. He looks to be dressed for the job at hand, often as though that job involves standing on the sidelines of a football game.

Mr. Walz, with many of his clothing choices, seems to want to fit in rather than stand out. He regularly wears zip-up fleeces, chore coats, sweatshirts, creased jeans and heritage staples like a black-and-red-plaid Filson Mackinaw Cruiser jacket he donned in a campaign ad when running for re-election as governor in 2022.

To a large extent, his look distinguishes him from the triple-pleat trousers favored by Beltway dinosaurs or the stretchy Suitsupply uniforms preferred by many male young guns in the nation’s capital. Even among his competitors in the race for the vice-presidential nomination — Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona and a former astronaut — there were more regulation navy suits to be seen than chore coats. And that may be no coincidence.

Mr. Walz was a high school teacher and he served in the Army National Guard for decades. As an educator, he was “the picture of humble, masculine service energy,” a former student of his at Mankato West High School told Politico this week. He was a “passionate teacher,” the student said, one who paced between desks, seldom sitting at his own, wore a shirt and tie and sweated profusely. That was in the mid-2000s, right before Mr. Walz made his defining leap from the classroom.

Already a father of two when he entered politics, Mr. Walz served as a congressman from Minnesota before going on to win two races for governor in the state by impressive margins. Relatable in appearance, the 60-year-old candidate has often dressed for news conferences in T-shirts or ball caps that would not be out of place on the checkout line at Hy-Vee.