Tim Walz worried about corporate power. He still took their checks

During his time in Congress, then-Rep. Tim Walz (D-MN) raised concerns about corporate power and accused Republicans of boosting special interests. That didn’t stop Walz, now Minnesota’s governor and the 2024 running mate of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, from accepting large checks from corporations.

Walz, as he represented Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District from 2007 to 2019, raked in over $1.7 million from political action committees, including those funded by corporations and corporate PACs themselves, campaign finance records show. The vice presidential nominee recently chaired the Democratic Governors Association, which pockets donations from corporations such as CVS Health, Walmart, Comcast, and Coca-Cola, according to OpenSecrets.

Walz’s willingness to take the corporate donations will likely open the Democrat up to hypocrisy accusations from Republicans as he runs on the 2024 ticket with Harris, the vice president. A progressive who has slammed the GOP for putting “millionaires, billionaires and corporations over working-class Americans,” Walz took aim in a Tuesday speech at Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), the running mate of former President Donald Trump, for having “his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires.”

Silicon Valley leaders, however, are lining up to support Harris and Walz, according to multiple reports. More than 100 venture capitalists pledged last week to vote for Harris and declared they had solicited donations for the Harris campaign, the New York Times reported. The cohort of investors included LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, former principal Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, Silicon Valley “super angel” investor Ron Conway, and Khosla Ventures founder Vinod Khosla.

“In this pivotal moment, we are united in our support for Vice President Kamala Harris,” the investors said in a joint statement.

Walz, in supporting a congressional amendment to reverse the landmark 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission Supreme Court decision, insisted in 2017 that “corporations are not people [and] money is not speech.” He frequently posted on social media that year about his criticism of the decision, which held that the First Amendment prohibits government restrictions on certain outside spending in elections.

“Ours is a #DemocracyForAll the People, not just for the millionaires, billionaires and corporations,” he posted on social media in June 2017. “Time to overturn #CitizensUnited!”

Walz said in a hearing months later that Republicans were prioritizing the interests of “corporations and the ultra-wealthy over the middle class.”

That same year, in 2017, Walz received campaign donations from Walmart, Land O’Lakes, Oracle’s Cerner Corporation, and other corporate-affiliated PACs. And throughout his time in Congress, corporate cash flowed into Walz’s campaign coffers from the likes of General Mills, Honeywell International, Pfizer, UnitedHealth Group, Deloitte, Comcast, Xcel Energy, and Exxon Mobil, records show.

Meanwhile, Walz shares close ties to the lobbying world. The Minnesota Democrat, Politico reported this week, “has a smattering of former staffers and colleagues around K Street from his seven terms in the House — many of whom would surely be sought after in a Harris administration.”

One former staffer, Walz’s ex-deputy chief of staff and legislative director, Jeremy Bratt, runs a firm that works on behalf of Walz’s gubernatorial office, the outlet reported. Another ex-Walz aide, Brendon Gehrke, is now government affairs director at defense contractor Leidos.

According to Minnesota campaign finance records, Walz’s gubernatorial committee took over $46,000 last year from lobbyists. Between 2018 and 2021, his campaign in the Gopher State was on the receiving end of $370,600 from lobbyists, a Washington Examiner analysis found.

Spokespeople for Walz and Harris did not reply to requests for comment.