Minnesota Democrats and Republicans React to Walz Being Tapped as Harris’s Running Mate

(KNSI) — Vice President Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate in her bid for the White House, and politicos on both sides of the aisle have plenty to say about it.

Minnesota DFL Chair Ken Martin hailed Harris’s pick, saying, “The entire country is about to see why their friends from Minnesota can’t stop bragging about Governor Walz. By picking a servant leader born and raised in a small town who has dedicated his career to protecting freedoms and lifting up working families, Vice President Harris has chosen the perfect foil for JD Vance and his politics of resentment. Under Governor Walz’s leadership, Minnesota has built a model for how Democrats across the nation can both win elections and improve people’s lives. We could not be more excited to help bring the Minnesota magic to this campaign and to put Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the White House.”

Republicans say under Walz’s leadership, the state blew through a $17 billion budget surplus, allowed fraud to run rampant to the tune of nearly $1 billion through the Feeding Our Future scam, unemployment overpayments of $434 million and lax oversight of the Frontline Worker Pay program led to unverified recipients – some of whom were deceased – receive a share of $500 million in benefits.

House Minority Leader Representative Lisa Demuth of Cold Spring also called attention to the ticket’s extremism, saying, “Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are the most extreme ticket in recent presidential history – they want to decriminalize illegal immigration, end private health insurance, reduce sentences for violent criminals, and make your energy bills more expensive.”

Walz was also heavily criticized for his response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody and not responding to Mayor Jacob Frey’s request to deploy the National Guard to help out police in his city as rioters ran roughshod over the town, setting fires, looting stores, destroying a police precinct and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage. Instead, Walz said in a press conference while in St. Cloud, he didn’t think Mayor Frey knew what he was asking for. “I think the mayor said, ‘I request the National Guard. Whew. This is great. We’re going to have massively trained troops.’ No! You’re going to have 19-year-olds who are cooks in some cases and what are we going to do and how are we going to use them.”

Experts believe Walz will connect with voters in rural areas, especially in neighboring states like Wisconsin and Michigan. Rural voters in Minnesota were quite upset with Walz after he was caught on tape calling the rural and red areas of the state “mostly rocks and cows.”

Walz will make his first campaign stop with Harris on Tuesday night in Philadelphia.

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