Pence's think tank reacts to Walz selection as Harris VP: 'Radical record'
AAF called Walz a 'hardcore leftist' and therefore the 'perfect pick' for Vice President Kamala Harris's presidential ticket
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former Vice President Mike Pence's think tank released a strong rebuke to Gov. Tim Walz's spot on the Democratic Party ticket for the 2024 presidential election.
Advancing American Freedom — the policy institute founded by Pence following his term as vice president under former President Donald Trump – released a memo Wednesday outlining what the organization calls Waltz's "radical record."
"Gov. Walz is actually the perfect pick for Vice President Kamala Harris — a hardcore leftist who appeals to the growing Ilhan Omar wing of the Democratic Party," AAF Executive Director Paul Tellers told Fox News Digital.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}FORMER MINNESOTA GOP GOVERNOR SUMS UP TIM WALZ VP PICK: 'BERNIE SANDERS IN HUNTING GEAR'
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks at a campaign rally in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
The memo accused Walz of "[fanning] the flames of Black Lives Matter riots" during the 2020 unrest in Minnesota, turning the state into a "murder capital" with a 50% spike in homicide rates, and "[cutting] funding for pregnant women" while "[pushing] abortion-on-demand."
The think tank also blasted Walz for turning Minnesota into a "trans refugee state," having "signed legislation allowing children to be taken from their parents if parents don’t support their minor child receiving life altering surgeries or supposed medical treatments."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The selection of the 60-year-old Walz was not a shocker, as his name was believed to be in contention for the two weeks following Harris's replacement of President Biden as the party's standard-bearer.
WALZ'S HANDLING OF BLM RIOTS, STRICT COVID RULES UNDER MICROSCOPE AFTER HARRIS VP PICK
Then-Vice President Mike Pence and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz speak to the press after Pence visited 3M World Headquarters in Maplewood, Minnesota. (Glen Stubbe/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Walz, a former congressman, is in his second term as governor of Minnesota, a state that Democrats have reliably won in presidential elections for decades but that the Trump campaign has aimed at flipping this cycle.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The memo touches on multiple common criticisms being offered against the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, such as exacerbation of the border crisis through sanctuary laws and his treatment of religious institutions during the COVID-19 lockdowns.
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Then-Vice President Mike Pence visits Rock Springs Church to campaign for GOP Senate candidates in Milner, Georgia. (Megan Varner/Getty Images)
Pence has largely remained above the fray of the 2024 presidential election after dropping out late last year.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He previously refused to endorse his former running partner in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. At the same time, he made clear earlier this year that he would never support the Biden re-election campaign.
The vice-president's think tank has offered a "Biden-Harris Accountability Tracker" on their website through which the group catalogs the administration's policies and offers examples of consequential negative effects.
Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.