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Source: JIM WATSONCHRIS KLEPONIS / Getty

PHILADELPHIA —  Vice President Kamala Harris has picked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.

The 60-year-old Democrat served in the House for 12 years before being elected governor of The North Star State in 2018 and re-elected in 2022.

The news of the pick comes two weeks after President Biden ended his reelection campaign, prompting the Democratic Party to rise around the vice president quickly.

Waltz is thought to help Harris in the key Midwestern battleground states.

Walz who has a background representing rural communities and enacting progressive priorities was part of a deep bench of potential running mates that included Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.

Additionally, he is a 60-year-old Nebraska native who enlisted in the Army National Guard after high school and served for 24 years with both domestic and overseas deployments.

He spent a year teaching high school in China after graduating from Chadron State College in 1989. He returned to the U.S and taught high school in Nebraska before moving to his wife’s home state of Minnesota in 1996.

Waltz’s political career began in 2006, when he was elected to the House of Representatives to represent a primarily rural district bordering Iowa, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

He served in Congress until 2019 when he became Minnesota’s governor. He was reelected to the position in 2022.