Harris, Walz use Minnesota progressive overhaul as economic ‘roadmap’

To understand the economic vision of the Harris-Walz presidential ticket, Minnesotans say just look at the North Star State.

“I’ve heard some of the things that have been talked about on the ticket,” Minnesota AFL-CIO President Bernie Burnham told CNBC in an interview. “They are kind of a reflection of what’s happening here.”

Under its Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, Minnesota has expanded union protections, approved over $1 billion in housing resources, enacted universal paid family and medical leave, funded free school lunches, hiked corporate taxes and more.

Taken together, they make Minnesota a kind of proving ground for progressive policies that have faced opposition at the federal level.

Now, with Walz on the ticket as Vice President Kamala Harris‘ running mate, the Minnesota playbook is drawing national attention.

“It’s a roadmap for sure,” Amy Koch, a Republican strategist who formerly served as a Minnesota state senator, told CNBC.

Already, several of the economic priorities of the Harris campaign mirror policies that were championed by Walz in Minnesota.

The vice president has proposed codifying stronger worker protections, investing to build three million new homes, providing a $25,000 subsidy for all qualifying first-time homebuyers and expanding the Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit and other tax programs. She has also endorsed a corporate tax hike.

But at the same time, Harris has toned down some of the rhetoric about corporate greed and big business monopolies that animate so many of President Joe Biden’s speeches.

This has caused some leaders in corporate America to hold out hope that if she were elected president, Harris might give them a larger seat at the table than her predecessor has.

But if Harris is taking notes from Walz’s approach in Minnesota, that hope might be little more than a pipe dream.

Walz’s progressive policy agenda swept through Minnesota’s legislature at lightning speed — the lion’s share was passed within the first months of 2023, when he began his second term.

This was possible due to a rare confluence of factors that favored Democrats.

In November 2022, when Walz was reelected as Minnesota’s governor, the state’s Democratic party, known as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, or DFL, won a governing trifecta with razor-thin majorities: a one-seat margin in the Senate and a six-seat margin in the House.

“I’ll be honest with you, it was a bit of a surprise,” said DFL former Minnesota state senator Jeff Hayden. “We all kind of…