(NewsNation) — The Republican and Democratic presidential tickets are stacked after presumptive nominee Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate.
Ohio Sen. JD Vance‘s nomination as former President Donald Trump’s vice president pits him against Walz, a former teacher and longtime politician.
At 39, Vance will represent a younger generation of Republicans alongside 78-year-old Trump. Meanwhile, Walz and Harris stand united on major Democratic voting issues, including abortion and immigration.
Here is how Vance and Walz stack up against one another on the big issues.
Who is Tim Walz?
Walz’s liberal policy record and decorated background as a congressman and soldier made him stand out as a vice presidential contender.
Walz, a Nebraska native, enlisted in the National Guard out of high school at 17 years old and served 24 years. He also worked in agriculture and manufacturing before graduating from Chadron State College with a degree in education.
The veteran temporarily taught in China and on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which is one of the poorest areas in the country.
Walz won his congressional bid in 2006 and served for 12 years before pivoting his career in 2019 to assume the governorship. In that time, he gained recognition as a top Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee and the highest-ranking enlisted soldier in congressional history.
During his time in Congress, he served on three House committees: Agriculture, Armed Services and Veterans’ Affairs. He was also the highest-ranking enlisted soldier to ever serve in Congress.
Who is JD Vance?
A Yale School graduate, Vance went on to become a best-selling author and Ohio senator.
Vance was gaining recognition for the publication of his 2016 memoir “Hillbilly Elegy” as Trump was entering the White House. Vance was openly critical of the former reality TV star at the time, referencing himself in a 2016 interview as a “never-Trump guy.”
That changed in 2021 as Vance eyed an Ohio Senate seat that he won and still holds. Vance deleted tweets from 2016 calling Trump “reprehensible” and an “idiot,” Politifact reported.
The public didn’t forget about Vance’s former stance, however, and the then-budding politician acknowledged his criticism of Trump during a 2021 Fox News interview.
“Like a lot of people, I criticized Trump back in 2016, and I ask folks not to judge me based on what I said back in 2016 because I’ve been very open about the fact that I did say those very critical things, and I regret them,” Vance said. “I was wrong about the guy. I think he made a good president.”
Vance, Walz on crime
Although statistics show a decline, crime remains one of the top issues for voters. NewsNation and Decision Desk HQ polling shows crime as one of the top three issues for the 2024 election.
In February 2023, Walz signed into law legislation providing funding for the attorney general to hire as many as seven additional criminal prosecutors. The law, he said, would triple the capacity of the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office to “prosecute violent crime and bring justice to victims of crime.”
Walz has said investing in public safety will lower crime rates, local outlet KTTC reported in June 2022.
“The sheer capacity to process evidence and work crime scenes is critical,” KTTC quoted Walz saying at the time. “We have heard it time and time again at dozens of stops. Invest money in us. Invest money in the BCA and the researchers and investigators, and we will bring down these numbers.”
Later that year, Walz signed a bill to legalize recreational marijuana for people over the age of 21 starting in August, making Minnesota the 23rd state to legalize the substance for adults.
Vance’s record on criminal justice intertwines GOP talking points, including crime, abortion and immigration.
In 2023, Vance introduced the Protect Children’s Innocence Act as a companion bill to a measure by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. Vance’s bill, if passed, would make it illegal for doctors to provide gender-affirming care to minors, making the act punishable by as many as 12 years in prison.
The nonprofit LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD criticized Vance, saying the bill contains “an array of far-right, anti-transgender buzzwords” and bans on medical procedures, “none of which are a part of transgender healthcare for minors.” Several of the procedures Vance sought to ban include those commonly performed on cisgender people, including plastic surgery and hormone therapies, GLAAD noted.
Vance also supported Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s PRINTS Act, which called for fingerprinting and federal reporting of minors who cross the border in suspected acts of human trafficking, The Marshall Project reported. Anyone who “use(s) unrelated minors to gain entry into the United States” would be eligible for a sentence of as many as 10 years in prison.
Vance additionally co-sponsored Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn’s Back the Blue Act of 2023. The act would raise the minimum and maximum sentences, including death or life in prison, for people convicted of killing or assaulting police officers, according to The Marshall Project.
Vance, Walz on abortion
During his time in political office, Vance has opposed abortion access and some LGBTQ+ rights. He also supports policies he argues would increase birth rates in the United States, such as making childbirth free and financially incentivizing couples to have children.
While Vance ran for Senate on a staunchly anti-abortion platform, he has somewhat shifted his public stance on the issue.
In a July 7 interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Vance said he agreed with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling dismissing a case challenging the availability of mifepristone, an abortion drug.
“I think it’s important to say that we need to have a conversation in our country about what our abortion policy should be,” he said. “Donald Trump is the pragmatic leader here.”
In January 2023, Walz signed a bill codifying abortion rights following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Walz signed an executive order shielding people seeking or providing abortions in his state from facing legal consequences in other states. He also vowed to reject requests to extradite anyone accused of committing acts related to reproductive health care that are not criminal offenses in Minnesota.
Walz, Vance on border and immigration
In a 2021 letter, Walz asked Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to “prioritize a clean pathway to citizenship for essential workers, dreamers, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holder, and their families.”
“Dreamers and TPS holders have enriched and strengthened Minnesota’s cities, schools, businesses, congregations and families,” Walz wrote. “We believe that it is a moral imperative that Republicans and Democrats in Congress work together to enact bipartisan legislation that replaces fear and uncertainty with permanent protection for these individuals.”
Vance’s views on immigration largely echo Trump, saying he opposes “every attempt to grant amnesty” to immigrants who arrived in the U.S. illegally.
During his 2022 campaign for Senate, Vance ran a political ad saying, “Joe Biden’s open border is killing Ohioans,” looking straight into the camera, adding, “With more illegal drugs and more Democrat voters pouring into this country.”
Vance argues illegal immigration has devastated parts of the country, including places like Wisconsin that are far from the U.S. border with Mexico. He blames Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden for problems such as the flow of illegal drugs, and says he and Trump will secure the border and “put Americans first.”
The Ohio senator faced backlash in September after promoting false claims that Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, are abducting and eating pets as he tried to draw attention to Democratic presidential nominee Harris’ immigration policies. Officials have said there have been no credible or detailed reports about the claims.
Walz, Vance past controversies
Walz came under fire in 2022 when the Justice Department announced federal criminal charges against dozens of people accused of exploiting a federally-funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic. The theft of $250 million marked one of the country’s largest pandemic aid fraud cases, resulting in charges against 70 people. Five of the first seven defendants to stand trial were convicted.
The trial gained widespread attention after someone tried to bribe a juror with a bag of $120,000 in cash the night before the case went to the jury.
Republican legislative leaders said the report shows that the failure to stop the fraud lies with Walz’s administration, which said the state’s hands were tied by a 2021 court order to resume payments despite its concerns — a charge the judge disputed — and that the FBI asked the state to continue making payments while the investigation continued.
The Democratic governor also came under fire from GOP critics for his response to the civil unrest after a white former Minneapolis police officer killed 46-year-old Black man George Floyd. Walz’s detractors said he waited too long to deploy the Minnesota National Guard.
Critics have said Vance’s “Hillbilly Elegy,” which tells a first-person account of his extended Appalachian family’s efforts to escape poverty, perpetuates stereotypes many Appalachian people try to outrun.
Vance’s 2021 comments about “violent” marriages also caused a stir. Vice reported on his remarks, which Vance made at an event that took place at Pacifica Christian High School in Southern California. Vance faced backlash after the report came out but previously said his comments had been misconstrued.
Recently, he addressed resurfaced remarks that the country was being run by “childless cat ladies,” calling it a “sarcastic comment” and pivoting to attack Democrats as “antifamily.”
Comments Sen. JD Vance made in 2021 about “violent” marriages also circulated online and sparked controversy. Vance made the remarks at an event at Pacifica Christian High School in Southern California. He previously said his comments had been misconstrued.
The Associated Press and The Hill contributed to this report.