By: Darshini Dayanidhi
Democratic Vice Presidential candidate – Tim Walz:
Tim Walz was born on April 6, 1964, (now aged 60), in West Point, Nebraska. He is the son of a public school administrator and community activist. Walz enlisted in the Army National Guard at the young age of 17 and retired 24 years later as Command Sergeant Major. CSM is a non-commissioned rank and position of office in the US Army. Before retiring, Walz served overseas with his infantry unit in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He is currently the highest-ranking enlisted soldier ever to serve in Congress.
In 1989, Walz earned a B.S. in social science education from Chadron State College in Nebraska. Afterward, Walz spent his 1989-1990 year teaching high school students in China as a part of the first government-sanctioned groups of American educators to teach in China through a program at Harvard University. Returning to the US, he began teaching high schoolers in Nebraska. He soon married Gwen Whipple in 1994. The couple moved back to Gwen’s native state Minnesota where they both began teaching and coaching at Mankato West High School. They have two children named Hope and Gus.
Coming to Congress, Walz prioritized care of the nation’s veterans. The Rochester Post Bulletin stated that, “he brings a soldier’s work ethic to the House.” He has been recognized for his work in Congress with awards from AMVETS, the National Association of County Veterans Service Officers, the American Cancer Society, the National Association of Development Organizations, the National Farmers Union, and the Matthew Shepard Foundation.
In 2018, Tim Walz was elected as the 41st governor of Minnesota and was reelected in 2022. His focus remained solely on investing in the things that according to him matter most: children and families, economic opportunity, health and safety, and strong local communities.
When Joe Biden announced that he was dropping out of the presidential race on July 21, 2024, things took a drastic turn for the Democratic party. When Kamala Harris officially became the Democratic nominee, she chose Tim Walz as her running mate. The pair appeared at a campaign rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024 to publicize the news.
Republican Vice Presidential candidate – James David Vance:
J.D. Vance was born on August 2, 1984, in Middletown, Ohio. His parents—Don and Bev Bowman—came from Scots-Irish ancestry. He has an elder half sister, Lindsay. His family was one of numerous families in Middletown with Appalachian roots. J.D Bowman became J.D Vance when he took his mother’s surname after his parents divorced.
After graduating from Middletown High School in 2003, Vance enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps. During his service in the Marines, he was deployed to Iraq to serve in the Iraq War. He received a bachelor’s degree in political science and philosophy in 2009 at Ohio State University. He further pursued higher education at Yale University, earning a law degree in 2013. Vance subsequently worked for the multinational law firm Sidley Austin LLP and for investment firms in California. In 2014, Vance met his wife Usha Chilukuri. The couple married in Kentucky in an interfaith marriage ceremony, as she is Hindu and he is Christian. They have three children named Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel.
In 2016, Vance published Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis, a memoir of his experiences growing up in Middletown and the summers he spent with family members in Jackson, Kentucky. In the book, Vance describes the bleak picture of life in those communities stating that it was an environment in which poverty was a “family tradition” for many people. He goes into detail about the substance use problems and domestic violence issues that were common. A movie adaptation of Hillbilly Elegy was released on Netflix in 2020.
In 2016 Vance moved back to Ohio from California and founded our Ohio Renewal, a nonprofit organization that aimed to help disadvantaged children and address problems such as drug addiction and the opioid epidemic. He also started an investment firm based in Cincinnati.
Soon after entering the U.S. Senate race in 2021, Vance made his support for Trump’s policies the center-piece of his campaign and aligned himself with the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement. He also repeated Trump’s claims that there had been widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. Vance was sworn in as senator of Ohio on January 3, 2023. When it was time to pick a running mate, Donald Trump picked J.D Vance. Trump wrote on Truth Social that the Ohio Republican is “the person best suited to assume the position of Vice President of the United States.”
