By BRIAN PORTER | Rocky Mountain Voice
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, named last week by Vice President Kamala Harris as her running mate, will make Denver a destination this week in advance of the Democratic National Convention.
It is part of a multi-stop fundraising trip from coast-to-coast, beginning Tuesday in California, where Walz plans to speak to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees at its Los Angeles convention, according to several media reports.
Following the stop in California, Walz will appear at Democratic fundraisers in Denver and Boston, Mass., on Wednesday and then will be off to Newport, R.I., and Southampton, N.Y., for two more fundraisers on Thursday, The Washington Times reports.
Republican Donald J. Trump just last week visited Aspen for a fundraiser, perhaps lending to Trump’s criticism the Harris campaign is copy-catting him.
“Governor Walz, a former union member himself, has a strong record of standing up for unions and delivering for workers — from joining the picket line and passing the most pro-worker package of laws in Minnesota history, to guaranteeing Minnesota workers paid sick, medical, and family leave,” the campaign told The Washington Times.
Walz had almost immediately joined Harris on the campaign trail, following his selection as vice president, but this will be his first foray alone on the campaign.
The potential vice president has been under fire from the political Right, since his selection, for “stolen valor”. Specifically, they criticize his decision to retire from the Army National Guard mere months before his unit was to mobilize to support existing troops in Iraq.
Additionally, his comments from a decade-old political speech have come under fire in which he claimed to have carried an AR-style “weapon of war” in battle. The Army does not issue any long guns to troops on the AR platform, and he never would have carried any such weapon in a battle, since he was never deployed into a combat zone.
More detail on the Denver fundraiser will be added to this story as it becomes available.