The Democratic Party and the media initially flattered the choice of Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as running mate for defeated presidential candidate Kamala Harris, citing his popular appeal. The countryside firmly rejected the ticket to the Democratic Party on Tuesday night.
On the campaign trail, Walz often wore casual clothes and a camouflage baseball cap, presenting himself as a down-to-earth former coach who was as interested in hunting and soccer as he was in governing. On Tuesday night, Harris and Walz apparently fell out with rural America. Lose A hemorrhage of support from once-reliable Democratic voting blocs in the popular vote and in all battleground states swayed the decision to select popular Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as Ms. Harris’ running mate. Democrats in the department are doubtful.
Len Foxwell, a Maryland-based Democratic strategist, said that while none of the vice presidential candidates could save Harris from defeat, Walz’s selection and the campaign’s impact on voters convinced her It was still a bad decision to portray him, he explained to the Daily Caller News Foundation. (Related: Tim Walz tries to engage his Midwesterners, but ends up insulting them in the process)
Waltz: “Elon” [Musk] I’m jumping up and down on stage, jumping like shit. ”
Who’s going to tell him? 🧵 pic.twitter.com/Iae48qJAE7
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) October 22, 2024
“I don’t think a vice presidential candidate can save Kamala Harris’ candidacy,” Foxwell said. “That being said, I think Tim Walz’s vice presidential nomination represents another missed opportunity by the Harris campaign. They are fixated on his background as an assistant football coach. , a former congressman and successful governor, as opposed to who he really is. And at the 11th hour, they put him in a canned and staged rural environment. It made him look unpleasant and inauthentic.”
In one such “canned” moment, Walz went pheasant hunting in Minnesota in early October, donning hunting gear and carrying a gun, to emphasize his affinity for rural America. However, Walz struggled to load his gun and loudly stated that his shoulder hurt from the kick.
Foxwell said it was a strategic mistake for the “brains” in the Harris campaign to decide to pitch Walz to voters as something of a “punch line.”
“The way he’s been treated is a reflection of how obsessed this candidate is with this candidate and how obsessed our party is with identity politics,” Foxwell said. “And frankly, I think this guy deserves better.” (Related: ‘Knucklehead’ refrain couldn’t save Tim Walz from ’60 Minutes’ disaster)
A Minnesota Public Radio report revealed that Walz was not in Hong Kong in May 1989, when the Tiananmen Square protests were intensifying as previously claimed.
Walz called himself a “knucklehead” and admitted he made “a gaffe” during the CBS vice presidential debate. pic.twitter.com/Y4tVrZryNB
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) October 22, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump excessive performance Walz, the soon-to-be 47th president, was able to flip his home state of Minnesota on Tuesday, with rural voters gaining support in the 2024 race. Male voters also showed support for Trump, backing the president by a 10-point margin. According to Go to CNN exit poll.
Harris reportedly chose Walz in part because his résumé “would work well in industrial ‘blue wall’ states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.” It is reported that (Politico) reported Early August. Harris Walz’s ticket went on to lose all three states. Politico also reported that at the time, many Democrats representing rural battleground districts called Walz an effective candidate for voters in “high-flying areas,” citing his past experience representing such areas in the House of Representatives. It was reported that he is seen as someone who can work with him.
However, in his capacity as governor and vice presidential candidate of Minnesota, Walz issued a series of complaints, including that the Electoral College gave the green light for the state to strip custody of children from parents who opposed sex-reassignment surgery. Supported or enacted radical left-wing policies. I have to go. ” Billionaire left-wing megadonor Alex Soros also hosted Walz for a visit to Soros’ upscale Manhattan home in September.
Michigan Democratic strategist Adolph Mongo was harshly critical of Walz’s selection, saying there was “no question” Shapiro or Democratic North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper would have been a better choice, DCNF said. told.
“I look at Pennsylvania and say, ‘Damn, why do we need to go get the governor of Minnesota?’ No, I don’t think so. Why do we need to go get the governor of Iowa? Is it? No, I don’t think so,” Mongo told DCNF. “Trump went and ran this guy out of Ohio and slammed him into the middle of the blue wall, right? And people say, ‘Oh, that wasn’t a good move.’ Yes, he fooled everyone. That was a good move on his part. So back to the original question, yes, that was the wrong choice. ”
Pennsylvania was widely considered the most important battleground state in the 2024 presidential election, with Trump ultimately winning by a margin of about 143,000 votes. Shapiro was Pennsylvania’s most popular politician in August, according to numerous polls, and even favored by some Republicans in the state. According to In the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“It doesn’t take a genius. I could have made a good choice for her,” Mongo said. (Related: Waltz tells students that communism is “everyone the same and everyone has something in common.”)
Kamala’s husband Doug said of her hug with Tim Walz: pic.twitter.com/dY7XFgDOKk
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 9, 2024
But not all Democrats are as bitter about Mr. Walz as Mr. Foxwell and Mr. Mongo.
Dheeraj Chand, a Democratic data strategist who has done polling work but not the 2024 campaign, said Harris’ loss was “not about Waltz or Shapiro.” I believe this is mainly a result of there being only about 100 days until the election. Launch a full-scale presidential election campaign.
“Trump and Vance want to run as the party of the ‘norm’, but they are both Ivy League graduates who are wealthy on other people’s money. Mr. Trump inherited that. Vance is under the billionaire They had a working job, but they are rich on other people’s money,” Chand told DCNF. “Kamala Harris is the daughter of immigrants, worked in college, went to a public law school. Tim Walz is very famous as high school coach Tim Walz. The brand they were trying to build, the brand they were building. The identity I was trying to be was middle-class, normal people versus Ivy Leaguers. And it almost worked, but it didn’t work.”
The choice of vice president is not the only issue that has received renewed attention following Harris’ lopsided defeat. Harris avoided interviews for about the first month of her candidacy, repeatedly refusing to distance herself from President Joe Biden’s record and highlighting many of the key policy positions she espoused during her initial bid for president. turned over.
Another Democratic strategist echoed Chand’s assertion that choosing Walz was not something the Harris campaign did.
“I don’t think it was just a Midwest thing. I think there’s something deeper going on, and to really investigate that, you really need to look at something other than the exit polls,” said the strategist. told DCNF. “But I don’t think it was Tim Walz. And I don’t think Shapiro could have made a difference because they also lost Michigan. So they didn’t have Michigan State and Wisconsin. So, as far as I know, it wasn’t Tim Walz’s fault.”
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