Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, revealed Monday that former Vice President Kamala Harris selected him as her running mate in part because of his appeal to rural white men, saying he served as a sort of “permission structure” for them to support the Democratic ticket.
The Daily Caller reports that speaking at a forum hosted by Harvard’s Kennedy School, Walz acknowledged his role was intended to connect with a demographic that ultimately broke heavily for former President Donald Trump. “I also was on the ticket, quite honestly, because I could code talk to white guys watching football, fixing their truck, doing that, then I could put them at ease,” Walz said. “I was the permission structure to say you can do this and vote for this, and you look across those swing states, with the exception of Minnesota, we didn’t get enough of those votes.”
Walz admitted that his selection was meant to reassure working-class white male voters across key battleground states. Despite this strategy, Harris struggled with that group at the ballot box. NBC News exit polling showed Trump captured 60% of white male voters compared to Harris’ 38%. Among Latino men, the former president won 54%, while Harris secured 44%.
The Harris campaign positioned Walz as a relatable Midwestern figure with strong ties to traditional American pastimes like hunting and football. But their efforts were undercut when footage emerged of Walz mishandling a firearm and remarking that the recoil hurt his shoulder, which critics seized upon to challenge his authenticity.
Further criticism arose when Walz, often portrayed as a football-savvy everyman, used the term “pick six” incorrectly during a live-streamed Madden video game session with Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York. He stated they could “run a mean pick 6,” misapplying the football term that refers to an interception returned for a touchdown.
In the months leading up to the election, the Harris campaign also received outside support from a group calling itself “White Dudes for Harris,” which encouraged white men to reject Trump’s rhetoric, labeling it as “a hateful and divisive ideology.”
Despite the criticism, Walz stood by Harris as a candidate, calling her “one of the most qualified candidates ever” and adding that “history will decide” whether voters made the correct choice in the election.
Politico reported in August that Harris’s team believed Walz’s roots and background would help attract voters in key industrial swing states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Congressional Democrats viewed him as a figure who could speak to those in “flyover country,” owing to his own experience representing a rural district in the U.S. House.
However, some Democratic strategists later questioned the campaign’s execution. Len Foxwell, a Maryland-based Democratic consultant, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that Walz was often placed in “canned and staged rural settings that made him look both uncomfortable and inauthentic.” Similarly, Michigan Democratic strategist Adolph Mongo suggested that Governors Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania or Roy Cooper of North Carolina would have been stronger choices.
