WASHINGTON — Many people in western Wisconsin were familiar with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz long before Vice President Kamala Harris picked him to be her running mate.
“Absolutely everybody knows Tim Walz here,” said Mayor Jim Paine of Superior.
John Righeimer, chair of the Sawyer County Republican Party, noted, “He's always on the news a lot."
The Harris campaign estimates that about 400,000 Wisconsin residents are part of the Minneapolis and Duluth media markets, giving them a familiarity with Walz. The campaign also believes many of those residents can relate to Walz because his life as a teacher and football coach in a rural part of Minnesota is not much different from their lives across the border.
“I think that is what is probably going to have the most crossover appeal to people that live a normal life, right? To farmers, to teachers, to people that work at the hardware store,” said Olga Diaz, a member of the Burnett County Democratic Party.
“He really does speak our language,” added Mayor Paine. “And it’s almost like getting our own governor on the ticket.”
But Geoff Peterson, head of the political science department at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, is skeptical whether Walz gives the Democratic ticket a home field advantage in western Wisconsin, let alone the entire state.
“You know, is it going to make a huge difference here compared to the rest of Wisconsin? I’d be surprised,” Peterson said.
Pete Huff, the chair of the Dunn County Democratic Party, said he’d heard of Walz’ work in Minnesota, ensuring children have free breakfast and lunch at school and enshrining abortion rights.
“I think there's a lot about his story and a lot about what he stands up for, what he believes in, that really resonates with Wisconsinites,” Huff said. “[Minnesota is] a stone's throw from our community and people… We are very connected to the Minneapolis-St. Paul region and Minnesota as a whole, so I think it absolutely made a huge difference that he joined the ticket. I think it really brings a new energy to the state.”
And, Huff said that public school teachers “carry a lot of water here.” He’s seeing enthusiasm for the Harris-Walz ticket when he goes door-knocking.
“I think it felt like we have somebody that's a champion for small towns like ours, in that Tim Walz is from that space,” he said. “And I think that that's something that makes the whole campaign, the whole election, feel much more relatable to a small town like Menominee or a small county like Dunn County.”
Righeimer said he never thought much of Walz before Harris named him as her running mate, but he acknowledges that Walz comes across as “everybody’s friend’s dad.”
“And I've seen that work,” Righeimer explained, “because I think when he was first chosen, I even saw some Republicans on social media saying, ‘Wow, Democrats made a good move.’”
Still, Righeimer called Walz “far left” and said he did a poor job handling the George Floyd protests in Minneapolis.
“I think if they look at Tim Walz, I hope they look beyond just the fuzzy, nice guy that he does appear to be, but legislatively, I think, hopefully [they] look at that as well,” Righeimer said.
Peterson said VP candidates don’t typically make much of a difference.
“It’s pretty hard for vice presidents to either bring huge bonuses or do a lot of damage,” he said.
Trump’s campaign tells Spectrum News that Wisconsin voters are looking for the “common sense policies” of Trump and Vance.
“Wisconsinites are hardworking people who love their families and only ask for a few things: safe communities, reasonable prices, and to be told the truth by elected officials–the people who are supposed to represent them,” said Jacob Fischer, a spokesman for the campaign, in a statement. “Unfortunately, Tim Walz stands against those Wisconsin values.”
Walz will have an opportunity to test his local appeal when he campaigns in Wisconsin on Labor Day.