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Walz announced his candidacy for Congress in 2006. He had no opponent for the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL) nomination in the September 12 primary election. 

He beat incumbent Republican Gil Gutknecht in the general election on November 7. After the election, Politico described Gutknecht as having been caught “off guard”, and Walz as having “resolved never to get caught like that himself…. He packaged himself as a moderate from Day One, built an office centered on constituent service and carved out a niche as a tireless advocate for veterans.” 

Upon his swearing in at the beginning of the 110th Congress, Walz became the highest-ranking retired enlisted soldier ever to serve in Congress, as well as only the fourth Democrat/DFLer to represent his district. The others were Thomas Wilson (1887–1889), William Harries (1891–1893), and Tim Penny (1983–1995).

In his first month in Congress, Walz was appointed to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, the Agriculture Committee, and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a special waiver exempting him from the order that barred most freshman members of Congress from serving on more than two committees.That same year he was appointed to the Armed Services Committee, where, along with fellow Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison, he opposed President Bush’s plan to increase troop levels in Iraq. In his first week as a legislator, Walz cosponsored a bill to raise the minimum wage, voted for stem cell research, voted to allow Medicare to negotiate pharmaceutical prices, and voiced support for pay-as-you-go budget rules, requiring that new spending or tax changes not add to the federal deficit.

Even as he represented a district that had usually voted Republican, pundits described Walz’s policy positions as ranging from moderate to progressive. He voted to advance the Affordable Care Act out of the House. As a congressman, he also met with the Dalai Lama and served on a commission monitoring human-rights in China.Walz was reelected in 2008 with 62% of the vote, becoming only the second non-Republican to win a second full term in the district. He won a third term in 2010, defeating state representative Randy Demmer with 50% of the vote. He was reelected again in 2012, 2014, and 2016. 

Walz received a 100% rating from Planned Parenthood in 2012, from the American Civil Liberties Union in 2011, from the American Immigration Lawyers Association in 2009–2010, from the AFL-CIO in 2010, from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in 2009–2010, and from the National Organization for Women in 2007. He also received single-digit ratings from the National Taxpayers Union, Citizens Against Government Waste, Americans for Tax Reform, and FreedomWorks. The United States Chamber of Commerce gave him a 25% rating in 2010.

Walz was ranked the 7th-most bipartisan House member during the 114th Congress (and the most bipartisan member from Minnesota).