Harris-Walz Campaign Compares to Trump-Vance Campaign on Health Care

Vice President Kamala Harris’ selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate makes health care a top priority in the final sprint before the November presidential election.

Walz, a 60-year-old former high school teacher and football coach, has a history of supporting left-wing health care initiatives during his two terms as governor and while serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2019. He also leads a state that is a focal point of the health care industry: Minnesota is home to the nation’s largest health insurer, UnitedHealth Group, and one of its most prestigious hospital systems, the Mayo Clinic.

Republicans have seized on his record to portray Harris-Walz’s candidacy as extreme on health care, while Democrats say Walz’s efforts to lower drug costs and preserve access to abortion are key positions that appeal to undecided voters. Either way, his selection puts health care front and center as an election issue, underscoring the nation’s primacy in abortion access as well as voters’ deep concerns about rising health care costs.

Many of Walz’s positions overlap with Harris’s.

He has fought for access to abortion, signed a bill regulating abortion rights in the state, and in March visited a Planned Parenthood clinic with the vice president.

He has supported congressional legislation that would authorize the federal government to negotiate drug prices under Medicare, the health insurance program for seniors and people with disabilities. The Biden administration on Aug. 15 released new, lower prices for 10 drugs in the program that result from negotiations between the government and drugmakers. The lower costs will go into effect in 2026.

As governor, Walz signed a law in 2020 that capped insulin costs at $35 a month for eligible residents who urgently need the drug. Two years later, President Joe Biden did the same for all Medicare patients.

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Walz mandated masks in most indoor public spaces. In 2020, he expanded the stay-at-home order, prompting former President Donald Trump to post “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” on X, the social media platform then called Twitter.

“He has common sense when it comes to issues and policy,” said Andy Slavitt, a former UnitedHealth executive and former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “He’s not an ideologue. He’s an independent thinker who cares about people who don’t have resources,” said Slavitt, who served as a senior adviser on the Biden administration’s COVID response team.

Walz is also an advocate for infertility treatments, sharing his personal story of how he and his wife, Gwen, relied on them to conceive a child. As in vitro fertilization comes under increasing scrutiny from some abortion opponents despite its widespread popularity, his first-hand knowledge of fertility challenges adds political power.

“Walz spoke openly and passionately about his IVF experience, which allowed him to connect with people on both sides of the aisle,” said Christopher Sheeron, founder and president of Action for Health, a national nonprofit human rights organization.

Minnesota Republicans say Walz’s positions on health care will work against the Democratic nomination. They criticize his 2021 COVID vaccinations or requiring regular testing for state workers, his support for legislation codifying abortion laws, his support for legalizing recreational marijuana and a bill he signed to expand public health coverage to some immigrants without legal residency.

“Under Governor Walz, we have seen one of the most radical, far-left agendas in the country. While Americans seek unity, Walz has a history of pursuing extreme policies that further divide us,” Minnesota Senate Republican Leader Mark Johnson said in a statement. “He has put our state on a path to government-run health care and has championed restrictive health care mandates that limit Minnesotans’ access to life-saving care.”

Tracy Mitchell, a Minnesota resident, said she was leaning toward supporting former President Donald Trump before Walz was elected in November because she believed he would do more to lower her health care costs.

This statement solidified her decision: she would vote for Trump.

“I have three kids, and health care is getting expensive,” Mitchell, 38, of Ham Lake, said during a visit with her family to Stillwater, Minn. She is the director of program operations at a mental health clinic.

“I think his approach to COVID-19 and health care is too radical,” she said.

But Democrats have said they hope a greater focus on health care will give them an electoral advantage, appealing to voters’ financial concerns in key battleground states.

Forty-eight percent of Republicans or adults who lean Republican said health care affordability is a very big issue in the country, according to a May Pew Research Center poll. Sixty-five percent of Democrats or adults who lean Democratic agreed.

These concerns include illegal immigration, the federal budget deficit, gun violence and drug addiction.

Three in four adults said they were very or somewhat worried about being able to pay unexpected medical bills, according to a survey conducted in January and February by KFF, a nonprofit health information organization that owns KFF Health News.

“Republicans have always suffered because they talk about health care in economic terms,” said William Pierce, a senior director at global consulting and advocacy firm APCO Worldwide and a former GOP congressional aide. “Democrats talk about it as a personal issue. Walz’s election gives them a better chance to push harder.”

Walz’s GOP counterpart, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, has less experience on health care issues. But he has tried to raise concerns about rising costs and barriers to accessing care.

During a recent visit to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Vance said the government needs to do more to ensure access to health care in rural America.

In a July 2017 editorial in The New York Times, long before he ran for the Senate as a Republican, Vance expressed support for some provisions of the Affordable Care Act and criticized the GOP effort to repeal the law because, he said, the proposal “rolls back support for the poor.”

Since joining Trump’s team, Vance has shared his views on the ACA, a law Trump tried and failed to repeal while president.

“There is a divide between those who defend the ACA and those who would repeal it. Walz’s election highlights that contrast more than ever,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Families USA, a nonpartisan organization focused on health care access and affordability.

Vance has supported allowing the federal government to negotiate prices for drugs covered by Medicare — a rare point of agreement on health policy with Democrats.

Like Trump, he opposes gender-affirming care for transgender minors. But he has taken a firmer stance than the former president on abortion, a vulnerability that Democrats have tried to exploit. Public support for abortion rights has surged since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade In 2022, many Republican-led states have moved to enact strict bans.

Both the Democratic and Republican campaigns are under renewed scrutiny for their positions on health care. California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis’s super PAC, Californians for Choice, released an ad this month in which Vance advocates for a nationwide abortion ban, “taking away our freedoms.”

Like Trump, Vance recently said specific decisions on abortion should be left to the states, but he has previously supported a nationwide abortion ban.

Meanwhile, the Trump campaign has labeled Walz “Tampon Tim” for signing a state law that requires menstrual products to be available to “all menstruating female students in restrooms regularly used by female students in grades 4 through 12, as determined by a plan developed by the school district.”

A recent Trump campaign ad called Walz “too weird. Too radical.”

Still, Walz’s addition to the ticket has emboldened Democratic voters with concerns about health care, like Angel Palm, 32, a life coach for people with disabilities who lives in Fridley, Minnesota.

“My son is autistic and has medical expenses. This is so important,” she told KFF Health News. “I’m so excited.”

KFF Health News is a national newsroom dedicated to in-depth journalism on health issues and is one of the main operational programs KFF — an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. This story also appeared on CBS News. May be reprinted for free.