Minnesota Magic? Tim Walz Introduces Himself to America

The Democrats’ path back to the White House in 2025 goes through the upper Midwest, America’s heartland.

With the vice-presidential nomination of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the party hopes for a safe landing in what White House aspirants have long labeled “fly over territory.” Walz put it all together Wednesday night, touching bases as a small-town boy, national guardsman, schoolteacher, father, football coach, hunter, and governor.

In his acceptance speech to the Democratic Convention, Walz used a football metaphor to sum up the challenge to his party in the 75 days remaining in the 2024 presidential campaign marathon. The Democrats are down by a field goal but have the ball and are driving. 

Walz was sticking to the traditional script. Vice presidential candidates have two jobs. They are attack dogs on the campaign trail. And they “sell” the presidential nominee, in this case incumbent Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

They work mid-sized communities. Lloyd Bentsen did Everett in 1988. Dick Cheney campaigned in Yakima. Joe Biden and Jack Kemp stumped in Tacoma. Al Gore visited a firehouse in Shoreline. They are often overlooked, except when Dan Quayle couldn’t spell “potato.”

Longtime U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., served in Congress with Walz and said what you see is what you get. In an interview Tuesday, McDermott described Walz as a small-town boy, an affable colleague, and a congressman who worked both sides of the aisle.

Walz introduced himself to the nation that way last night. He talked of growing up in a Nebraska town of fewer than 500 people, of joining the National Guard, and of his education, “Thank God for the GI Bill.” Of his classroom days, the governor remarked: “You know what? Never underestimate a public-school teacher.” The convention roared its approval.

Walz is an avid hunter, with pictures displayed to prove it. Yet, he made the case for gun safety, saying:  “Our first responsibility is to keep our kids safe.” Parkland, Fla., massacre survivor David Hogg was an enthusiastic Walz supporter as Harris vetted possible running mates. 

Walz had a strong supporting cast. Oprah Winfrey appealed for independent and independent-minded Republicans to back the Harris-Walz ticket. In her words, denouncing Donald Trump without speaking his name, “Decency and respect are on the ballot in 2024.”

The Democrats’ “big dog,” ex-President Bill Clinton, came across as an elder statesman, visibly aged from the star performer of conventions past. He, too, weighed in against the prospect of a second Trump presidency, saying: “I will cut to the chase. The stakes are too high and and I am too old to gild the lily . . . I actually turned 78 two days ago, and I’m still not so old as Donald Trump.”

Minnesota has produced more than its share of presidential candidates. Two liberals from the North Star state, Hubert Humphrey and Eugene McCarthy, squared off in the tumultuous 1968 nomination battle. Humphrey and Walter Mondale served terms as vice president. Humphrey set the Democratic Party on its path to civil rights advocacy with a fiery 1948 convention speech, which triggered a walkout by Southern delegations.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., its most recent presidential candidate, depicted Walz as an everyman son of the American heartland, saying: “In Minnesota we trust a coach who turned a team that was zero and 27 into state champions. In Minnesota we trust a hunter who has stood in a deer stand in ten-degree weather. In Minnesota we trust a candidate who has made a viral video of how to change a broken headlight.”

Walz waltzed into vice presidential contention by describing the Trump-Vance ticket as “weird,” a description that went viral. He has since demonstrated an ability to present the Democrats’ message in plainspoken language and to put in moderate terms stands that were highly controversial just a few years ago. He is a supporter of LGBQ rights, and served as adviser to a high school gay-straight alliance group.

In his speech last night, Walz couched his stand in terms of a right to privacy and individual liberty. In his words, “In Minnesota we respect our neighbors and personal choices they make and even if they wouldn’t make those choices, we have a golden rule: Mind your own damned business.” And Walz reached over Minnesota’s northern border to borrow a maxim coined by Canada’s (first) Prime Minister Trudeau (Pierre Elliot), saying that the state has no place in the nation’s bedrooms.

Walz has no patience with the Trump-Vance ticket or MAGA movement. “I’m ready to turn the page on these guys,” he said last night. Of MAGA priorities, he added: “It’s an agenda that does nothing for our neighbors in need. Is it weird? Absolutely. Absolutely. But it’s also wrong, and it’s dangerous.”