The truth behind Tim Walz’s 1995 DUI arrest and how it changed his life

Tim Walz chose to stop drinking alcohol in 1995 after he was arrested for driving under the influence, a story that has resurfaced after Vice President Kamala Harris announced the Minnesota Governor as her running mate.

On September 23, 1995, Walz, a 31-year-old, newlywed, high school teacher and football coach, was pulled over doing 96 miles per hour in a 55mph zone. The officer who stopped Walz smelled a “strong odor of alcoholic beverage”,according to the police report.

After failing a field sobriety test and preliminary breath test, Walz was taken to a local jail in Dawes County, Nebraska.

The incident took place11 years before Walz first pursued political office as Minnesota’s First Congressional District Representative.

But the DUI has come up time and time again throughout Walz’s political career and his meteoric rise to Harris’s running mate on the 2024 Democratic ticket is no different.

When Walz first ran for Congress in 2006 his opponents brought up the DUI – which, according to a court transcript obtained by Alpha News, was resolved in 1996 when he pled guilty to the state’s reduced charge of reckless driving.

Although he had a blood alcohol concentration of .128 (approximately .028 over the state’s limitat the time), Walz’s lawyer told the judge that Walz was speeding because he believed the police officer was “chasing him” since he did not turn on his flashing lights on immediately.

Walz’s lawyer told the judge that his client “felt terrible” about the incident and was “real disappointed in himself”.

The Minnesota governor ultimately went to the principal of his school, resigned from his extracurricular duties and offered to resign his teaching position, though his boss did not take him up on that.

The plea