Where Tim Walz stood on tax cuts in Congress

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) has a mixed record on taxes, having voted for tax increases that stoked Republican ire while also breaking from Democrats to extend Republican tax cuts.

As a congressman, Walz was one of just 19 Democrats in the House in 2012 to vote for a GOP bill to extend George W. Bush-era tax cuts ahead of a bipartisan deal struck with then-President Obama.

The Republican plan passed the House with a vote of 256-171. Nearly all of the votes against it were Democrats.

The Republican plan supported by Walz won out over a proposal by Democrats that passed the Senate and would have allowed an increase in taxes on income, dividends and capital gains and dividends on household earnings more than $250,000. It would have bolstered federal revenues by roughly $100 billion. 

Walz also voted to extend the Bush tax cuts in 2010 and then again as part of the Obama proposal as most Democrats did.

While Walz sided with Republicans on some tax issues earlier in his career in Congress, he joined 188 other Democrats in voting against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, former President Trump's marquee tax bill, in 2017. Not a single House Democrat voted for the measure, key parts of which are set to expire in 2026.

Walz also drew fire from Republicans on fiscal matters as governor. His 2023 budget, which he described as “transformational” for Minnesota, was the largest in the state’s history.

“In a time [when] there is a record surplus — $17.6 billion — Minnesotans are expecting to have that back,” Minnesota House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth (R) said last year. 

“Unfortunately, what we heard … is Minnesota is spending and it’s going to cost Minnesotans a little bit more to be here. That was a little bit surprising. If we can’t cut taxes now, when can we?” she said.

Endorsements for the Harris-Walz ticket have been rolling in from Democratic backers with some notable names in Silicon Valley singing Walz’s praises. Investor and television personality Mark Cuban was among them.

“People are tired of the ideologues and hate from both parties. They want to vote for normal people they can relate to. Walz can sit at the kitchen table and make you feel like you have [known] him forever,” he wrote online Tuesday morning.