What to know on claims made about Minnesota, Walz in VP debate against Vance
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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s home state came up early in his debate against fellow vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance on Tuesday evening. Here’s what to know on key points.
Walz addresses discrepancies in China travel record around 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre
“I got there that summer and misspoke on this. … I was in Hong Kong and China during the democracy protests.” — Walz
Tim Walz has deep experience in China. When he was in his mid-20s, he lived there for about a year, teaching in the southern city of Foshan. His stint with the nonprofit organization WorldTeach started in the summer of 1989, just two months after the Tiananmen Square massacre.
He has said in interviews and during other speaking engagements that he was in China during the massacre. He was not. He traveled there later that year.
Starting in 1993, he led annual summer trips to China for students in the Nebraska and Minnesota high schools where he taught. He and his wife, Gwen, even formed a small travel agency called Educational Travel Adventures, Inc., to help arrange the trips.
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He used to claim he’d been there “about 30” or “dozens” of times, but after APM Reports and MPR News questioned how that was possible, his campaign acknowledged the real number of trips from the U.S. to China was “closer to 15.” Former students and teachers who went on those trips recall that he spoke at least proficient Mandarin.
During the debate, CBS News political journalist Margaret Brennan asked, “Governor Walz, you said you were in Hong Kong during the deadly Tiananmen square protests during the spring of 1989 but Minnesota Public Radio and other outlets are reporting you actually didn't travel to Asia until August of that year. Can you explain that discrepancy?”
In Congress, Walz served on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, a body that monitors human rights and democracy in China. He also traveled there as part of a delegation led by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2015.
Minnesota abortion law has no viability limit
"As I read the Minnesota law that you signed into law, the statute that you signed into law says a doctor who presides over an abortion where the baby survives, the doctor is under no obligation to provide life-saving care to a baby who survives a botched late-term abortion." — Vance
Minnesota lawmakers and Gov. Tim Walz in 2023 approved landmark changes to the state’s abortion law to guarantee legal protections for abortion providers and those seeking abortions. It followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.
The law also undid legal requirements on abortion that had been put on hold under a state court case. Those included a 24-hour waiting period to get an abortion, a requirement that both parents sign off on an abortion for a patient under age 18, a provision preventing medical providers other than doctors from providing abortion services and limiting where the services or medications could be provided.
It doesn’t include a viability limit, meaning a cut off based on a fetus’s development for when abortions are allowed. Lawmakers removed the language last year but there hadn’t been a viability limit enforced in the state since a federal court ruling in 1976 essentially struck down state limits.
While they are allowed, abortions late in pregnancy are exceptionally rare. According to Minnesota data, in the last five years for which data is available just seven induced abortions have been reported in the third trimester of pregnancy. Abortions later in pregnancy are generally sought due to serious or fatal fetal anomalies, risk to maternal health or life or barriers that delay abortion access such as policy or financial need. It is illegal to kill a baby after birth as former President Donald Trump claimed in the presidential debate in September.
The 2023 law also dropped some state reporting requirements for abortion providers and ended the so-called “Born Alive Infants Protection Act.” Doctors and patients who’d pressed for the law change said the new law doesn’t prevent providers from trying to save the life of a child. Instead, they said it would let them bypass previously required medical interventions in situations where parents want to bond with their infant born with a fetal anomaly that is typically fatal.
Walz says his teen son witnessed a shooting
"I got a 17 year old and he witnessed a shooting at a community center playing volleyball. Those things don't leave you.” — Walz
On Jan. 18, 2023, a 16-year-old boy was shot in the head outside of St. Paul’s Jimmy Lee Recreation Center by center employee Exavir Dwayne Binford Jr. The rec center is a few miles from the Walzes’ home in St. Paul.
In February, Binford pleaded guilty in December to first-degree assault. At his sentencing, an attorney who represents the victim’s mother said he had to have a portion of his skull removed and still suffered from seizures.
Walz told MPR News senior politics reporter Dana Ferguson in March that his son Gus Walz was at the rec center during the time of the shooting.
In the interview, Walz said local gun restrictions are a good thing and he supports laws that would allow cities or counties to bar firearms in public spaces.
“As a parent of a, you know, a youth who was at that facility, I think that would have been a good decision to keep those firearms out of there,” Walz said in March.
During the debate, Walz mentioned the shooting before bringing up Minnesota gun laws. When asked to reply, Vance first offered support.
“I didn’t know that your 17 year old witnessed a shooting. I’m sorry about that. Christ, have mercy. It is awful,” Vance said.
Walz says his policies in Minnesota will slash child poverty
“And then making sure tax cuts go to the middle class. $6,000 child tax credit, we have one in Minnesota, reduces childhood poverty by a third. We save money in the long run and we do the right thing for families.” — Walz
In 2023, Minnesota enacted a new child tax credit that provides up to $1,750 per child for qualifying families.
The credit phases out for families with $90,000 in earnings.
It’s modeled somewhat after a federal child tax credit that was in place during COVID-19 but eventually lapsed.
The Walz administration set a goal of bringing down child poverty in the state by one third. But people who study efforts to reduce child poverty note that the achievement might be a statistical win rather than dramatically improving quality of life for families that qualify.
It has also proved to be a challenge to notify all of the Minnesotans eligible for the credit that they would must file taxes to receive it.
The program is expected to cost Minnesota’s treasury between $430 million and $480 million per year, according to legislative fiscal estimates.
Minnesota passed a paid family and medical leave program last year
“We implemented it in Minnesota and we’ve seen growth. That’s how you become a pro-business state.” — Walz
Minnesota passed a paid family and medical leave program in 2023. It won’t take full effect until 2026.
When Gov. Tim Walz and legislative Democrats adopted it, Minnesota became one of the few states in the country to enact such a government-administered program. It didn’t start overnight.
The program will be paid for through premiums — via a payroll tax — paid by both employers and employees. Since the bill was approved, an actuarial study found that the premiums will likely have to be higher than first envisioned to support the program.
Workers could qualify for up to 12 weeks upon the birth or adoption of a child or in a foster care arrangement. They could also take up to 12 weeks off for caregiving for an ill dependent. No employee could take more than 20 weeks total per year among the two offerings.
There are special accommodations for the smallest companies that would have difficulty going without employees for a long time.
Walz references large solar panel factory in Minnesota
“The largest solar manufacturing plant in North America sits in Minnesota.” — Walz
Gov. Tim Walz claimed the largest solar manufacturing plant in North America is located in Minnesota.
Heliene, a Canadian solar panel company, has been operating a solar panel factory in Mountain Iron, Minn., since 2018.
In 2022, it became the second-largest crystalline silicon solar panel factory in the United States.
The company told MPR News in 2023 that it intends to invest about $145 million to build a facility in the Twin Cities that will manufacture solar panels and individual solar cells. There are currently no solar cells manufactured in the U.S.
A Hanwha Qcells factory in Georgia is considered the largest crystalline silicon solar manufacturing plant in the United States.
Walz calls Minnesota a ‘major health care state’
“I come from a major health care state, home of the Mayo Clinic, home to Medical Alley, 3M, Medtronic, all those. We understand health care, it’s why we’re ranked first on affordability and accessibility and quality of health care.” – Walz
Last summer, WalletHub ranked Minnesota the best state in the nation for health care for the second consecutive year. Minnesota’s ranking is based on 44 key indicators including cost, access and health outcomes.
WalletHub ranked state’s based on three key dimensions: access, cost and outcomes. Those dimensions were evaluated using 44 relevant metrics. While Minnesota had the best overall score, Rhode Island ranked first for access, Iowa was tops for cost and Utah ranked No. 1 for outcomes.
Walz made the comments about health care in Minnesota in the context of a moderator’s question about the Affordable Care Act. Walz and Vance tangled over former President Donald Trump’s efforts to scrap the health insurance law. Trump hasn’t spelled out what would replace it.
“You’re not going to propose a 900-page bill standing on a debate stage. It would bore everyone to tears and it wouldn’t actually mean anything,” Vance said, arguing that Trump helped tamp down prescription drug costs as president and enacted more health pricing transparency.
“It’s not just a plan, he actually implemented some of these regulations when he was president to the United States. And I think you could make a really good argument it salvaged ObamaCare, which was doing disastrously until Donald Trump came along.”
Walz responded by talking about the health care legacy of his state, and he stressed the protections of the federal health law. Walz noted Trump fought the law throughout his time in politics.
“He ran on the first thing he was going to do on day one was to repeal ObamaCare. On day one he tried to sign an executive order to repeal the ACA,” Walz said. “He signed onto a lawsuit to repeal the ACA but he lost at the Supreme Court.”