- Details
- By Marlon WhiteEagle
Native Vote 2024. Democratic vice presidential nominee, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz returns to Wisconsin as a part of the Harris Walz ticket’s A New Way Forward tour. Walz arrived in Wisconsin at Central Wisconsin Airport in Mosinee, where former President Donald Trump campaigned a week earlier.
Walz, the former high school teacher and football coach, Minnesota congressman, and current Minnesota Governor, was elected to office in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. This is Walz second visit to Wisconsin since becoming the vice president candidate. He recently campaigned in Milwaukee over the Labor Day weekend.
The New Way Forward tour kicked off this week with Walz making a few stops in Michigan at Grand Rapids and East Lansing. Walz’s visit to central Wisconsin is the Harris Walz ticket’s first campaign stop in a multi-city visit.
Walz will campaign in Superior, Wisconsin and Duluth, Minnesota on Saturday, September 14.
Walz, accompanied by Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez and a press pool, first stopped at Just Right: Cakes, Coffee, Gifts, a Ukrainian bakery for a community event in Wausau.
“Ukraine must win the war,” Walz said. “Russia is the aggressor.”
Next, Walz spoke to a crowd of Democratic volunteers at the Whitewater Music Hall. Lt. Gov. Rodriguez warmed up the crowd for Walz.
Lt. Gov. Rodriguez said the “contrast is clear” between the Harris Walz and the Trump Vance bids for the White House.
“Are we going to move forward or are we going to move backwards,” Rodriguez said.
Walz briefly discussed the presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump from last Tuesday. Many polls and political pundits indicate and agree that Vice President Harris was the clear winner of the debate, while Trump claims he won it.
“One of the two people on that stage is qualified to do that job,” Walz said.
About VP Harris’s performance in the debate, Walz asks, “why are you surprised?” He continued saying she was a prosecutor, California Attorney General, U.S. senator, and current Vice President of the United States.
Walz explained that just four weeks ago, he was sitting in his house “minding his own damn business,” before being tapped as Harris’s running mate. In the first days of the Harris Walz campaign, Walz said, “we’ll sleep when we’re dead,” about his work to win the White House.
Walz warned the group of Democratic volunteers that some of you “took me seriously.” He said they should get “a few hours of sleep.”
Then, Walz commended them for “taking the energy,” to voter contact, and that transfers “to ballots.” He continued, “the young people are out.”
Gov. Walz compared the approach of the Harris Walz campaign to Trump Vance. He said, “we celebrate the press as a part of the system,” while the Trump Vance campaign has a different approach. Trump dismisses the press as “fake news.”
But Walz questions Trump, “when you lost the 2020 election, why do you continue to lie about it?”
Walz said when a candidate lost an election, they used to help their opponent in making the country successful, instead of working against them.
“This is not the Republican party,” he said. “This is Trumpism.”
Walz urged the Democratic volunteers to go do the work, knock on doors, talk to their neighbors and family, so Trump does not win and “let him go complain for however long he wants.”
"Let's wake up on that 54th day and be able to look at one another and know that we were part of this time, we were part of the time that stood up to this, we were the ones that did it," said Walz.
The Trump Vance campaign announced J.D. Vance would be coming to Eau Claire, Wisconsin next week.
Wisconsin is a critical swing state in this year’s presidential election.
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