Harris campaign changes Walz’s military biography after backlash

Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign quietly updated Gov. Tim Walz’s (D-MN) online biography after Republicans slammed its representation of her running mate’s military record. 

After Harris picked Walz to be her No. 2 on Tuesday, her campaign website called the Minnesota Democrat “the son of an Army veteran and a retired Command Sergeant Major in the Army National Guard himself.” 

Two days later, Walz’s online biography has been changed to label him as “the son of an Army veteran who served as a command sergeant major.”

The seemingly minor update comes after intense scrutiny of Walz revealed that the Minnesotan did not retire as a command sergeant major. Walz spent over two decades in the Army National Guard, eventually serving in the role, but the title was rescinded because Walz failed to complete the necessary coursework required by the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy to achieve the higher rank.

Walz consequently retired a step lower, under the rank of master sergeant, according to an Army spokeswoman. 

“Walz attained the rank of command sergeant major and served in that role but retired as a master sergeant in 2005 for benefit purposes due to not completing additional coursework,” Army public affairs officer Lt. Col. Kristen Augé said in a statement to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

This isn’t the first time Walz has faced criticism over misrepresenting his military credentials. During his 2018 race for governor in the North Star State, two retired command sergeant majors complained that Walz was misleading voters with his army titles. 

As the 2024 presidential race heats up, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), himself a Marine veteran, has led GOP attacks on Walz’s representation of his military record. 

After Walz said he had carried weapons “in war” in a Harris campaign video, former President Donald Trump’s running mate was quick to note that his Minnesotan rival had never “spent a day in a combat zone.” 

While Walz completed a wartime deployment to Italy in 2003, backfilling troops that were deploying to Afghanistan, he did not serve in combat. The Minnesota governor retired in 2005, just months before his unit deployed to Iraq. 

During a campaign stop in Michigan on Wednesday, Vance blasted Walz for “stolen valor garbage,” saying he should be “ashamed” for allegedly lying about his military service. The senator portrayed Walz’s retirement in an unfavorable light, insinuating that he had conveniently retired just before his unit went to war. 

“I wonder, Tim Walz, when were you ever in war?” Vance questioned. “He has not spent a day in a combat zone. … I’d be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service like he did.” 

“What was this weapon that you carried into war, given that you abandoned your unit right before they went to Iraq and he has not spent a day in a combat zone,” Vance continued.

Allan Bonnifield, who served with Walz, told Minnesota Public Radio in 2018 that the governor agonized over his decision to leave the military in order to make a run for Congress. 

“He weighed that decision to run for Congress very, very heavy,” Bonnifield said of Walz. “He loved the military, he loved the Guard, he loved the soldiers that he worked with, and making that decision was very tough for him. Especially knowing that we were going on another deployment to Iraq. He didn’t take that decision lightly at all.”

The Washington Examiner reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.