Wednesday, August 7, 2024

Rural-ish Minnesota Governor Tim Walz gets the nod as Harris' VP nominee

The New York Times ran this story last night about why Harris picked Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.  I'll just highlight the rural-related bits here, beginning with a direct quote from Walz: 

In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and their personal choices that they make, even if we wouldn’t make the same choice for ourselves.  There’s a golden rule: Mind your own damn business.

That's something he also mentioned in his Ezra Klein interview last week.  The New York Times continues:  

[Walz] saved his harshest words for Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, whose background he sarcastically compared with his own.

The story quotes Walz: 

Like all regular people I grew up with in the heartland, JD studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires and then wrote a best-seller trashing that community.

Walz added that he couldn’t wait to debate Vance “if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up.”

That last line was a cheeky reference to a false online rumor that could open Walz up to criticism at a moment when the Harris campaign is working hard to fight disinformation.
The story says this about Harris' introduction of Walz at their first joint rally, in Philadelphia on August 6:  
Harris ... describ[ed] a man who had a small-town upbringing in Nebraska before becoming a high school teacher and a football coach who turned a winless team into state champions. Then, his students encouraged him to run for office. It’s a remarkable tale that could be a “Friday Night Lights” plot, and the crowd loved it. 
* * * 
Harris described him as a hunter, a gun owner and the best marksman in Congress. And she sought to use him as evidence for a campaign she says is intended to reach Americans in red and blue states alike — although Republicans are already working overtime to depict him as too liberal for much of the country.

Here is the Los Angeles Times coverage of the Walz selection, noting his rural roots. 

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