When Vice President Kamala Harris delivered her first rally speech after announcing her campaign for president last month, she outlined some of her priorities for “building up the middle class,” including making childcare more affordable and implementing a national paid leave policy. To advocates invested in improving the lives of family caregivers, and particularly women, it was a signal that Harris is committed to following through on some of the Biden administration’s unmet promises.

Those advocates see Harris’s choice of Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, along with her pledges to bolster social programs and implement paid leave policy, as reaffirming her commitment to strengthening the “care economy” as president.

“With the selection of Governor Walz, [Vice President] Harris is doubling down on caregiving as a top priority,” said Melissa Boteach, the vice president of childcare and income security at the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund.

This is largely because of Walz’s experience in Minnesota: He and the Democratic-controlled state legislature undertook an ambitious agenda in 2023, approving a slew of progressive policies including an expanded state child tax credit, a new paid family and medical leave program, universal school meals, and additional protections for abortion access. Despite their razor-thin majority, state Democrats embraced those ideas, which would be considered moon shots in a divided legislature.

The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, this year rated Minnesota as the fifth-highest-scoring state for its annual care policy report card, in part because of the paid family and medical leave program that will go into effect in 2026, with its expansive eligibility standards and guarantee of 12 weeks of 90 percent pay for workers.

“You don’t win elections to bank political capital,” Walz wrote last year........

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