Tim Walz has served as governor of Minnesota since 2019. A lifelong Midwesterner, he enlisted in the Army National Guard when he turned 17 and served for 24 years, rising to the rank of command sergeant major. After attending public universities thanks to the GI Bill, Walz became a high school teacher, football coach and union member. After spending nearly 20 years teaching, Walz ran for Congress in a conservative district. In his six terms in office, he served on the House Committee on Agriculture and as ranking member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Walz and his wife, Gwen, who was also a public school teacher, have two children, Hope and Gus.

Gov. Walz signed a bill providing paid family and medical leave for Minnesotans into law. The program created a state paid family and medical leave program, which will provide partial wage replacement for 12-20 weeks of leave for medical leave, bonding or caring for a family member.

Gov. Walz signed a bill restricting employers from entering into noncompete agreements. Significantly, it also covers all employees and independent contractors regardless of their income. Noncompetes are widely accepted as harmful to wages and competition as employers require workers to sign away their rights.

Gov. Walz signed a bill barring employers from holding anti-union captive audience meetings and protecting meatpacking workers and Amazon warehouse employees.

The same legislation strengthened the collective bargaining power of teachers’ unions, including allowing bargaining over educator-to-student classroom ratios.

Finally, Gov. Walz signed legislation creating a statewide council to improve conditions for nursing home workers.

JD Vance has served as the junior senator from Ohio since 2023. Born and raised in Middletown, Ohio, he had a turbulent childhood and was primarily raised by his grandmother. Vance enlisted in the Marines as a military journalist after high school and spent six months in Iraq in 2005. He attended the Ohio State University on the GI Bill and then attended Yale Law School. Vance became a corporate lawyer at the law firm Sidley Austin before moving to Silicon Valley to become a venture capitalist. He wrote a bestselling book, Hillbilly Elegy, which was turned into a Netflix movie. Vance and his wife Usha, who is also a lawyer, have three children, Ewan, Vivek, and Mirabel.

JD Vance wants to keep letting each state decide on union-busting “right to work” for less laws.

JD Vance was a co-author of the TEAM Act, an anti-worker bill that would allow employers to create sham unions undermining worker power.

Vance opposed the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would address loopholes in labor law and expand protections for workers seeking to unionize.

JD Vance defended Donald Trump when he praised Elon Musk for firing workers.

JD Vance’s push for privatizing public services like education and health care threatens to make these critical resources inaccessible to working families. Vance has opposed providing resources for public school students, including attacking his 2022 Senate opponent for supporting the American Rescue Plan, which provided record resources for students.

Vance has said that he is “disturbed by people who devote their lives to teaching children and who don’t have children of their own.”