NNow that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has rocketed into the public eye after being named Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, voters have been introduced to his outspoken, Midwestern communication style.
As former President Barack Obama wrote this week in his statement about Walz, “Tim’s trademark is his ability to speak like a human being.”
Walz’s way of speaking already became apparent in his early days as a candidate and vice-presidential candidate. Walz’s jabs and jokes have gone viral and caught the attention of voters and the media, from Walz originating the Democrats’ new strategy of calling GOP candidates “weird” to his reference in his first appearance with Harris to a rumor smut on the Internet about the Ohio senator. JD Vance, former President Donald Trump’s running mate.
Political strategists and experts say Walz’s style could be an asset to Harris’ campaign. “Vice presidential nominees often take on the role of attack dog, and there is a danger that they will end up coming across as unpleasant, but if you can do that with a smile, a wink and some humor, you can get this message across without that. It necessarily backfires,” says Travis Ridout, a political scientist at Washington State University and co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project. “That’s the Midwest that will allow him to not look obnoxious.”
George Washington University professor David Karpf agrees: “Two weeks ago, saying that line about Donald Trump and JD Vance being just weird wouldn’t have resonated, but because the ‘father governor of the Midwest’ said it, he can say it. that phrase and have it land really well.”
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The contrast between Walz and Harris, who is from California and spent his early career in San Francisco, also adds stylistic balance to the entry. Born in the small town of West Point, Nebraska, Walz’s roots run deep in rural America. “Where I grew up, community was a way of life. My high school class was 24 people. I was related to half of them,” Walz said in a video posted on social media to announce he was running against Harris. After high school, Walz spent 24 years in the Army National Guard before moving to Mankato, Minnesota, where he worked as a social studies teacher and high school football coach until winning his first election to Congress in 2006.
“The question is, do people identify him as a Midwesterner when they see and hear him? And the answer is yes,” says Kathleen Hall Jamieson, professor of communications and director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. “That gives him credibility in the swing states of Wisconsin, Michigan and rural Pennsylvania.”
The Trump campaign has already begun trying to separate Walz from his Midwestern identity, linking him instead to a “West Coast” liberalism like the kind they argue Harris represents. On August 6, the Trump-Vance campaign released a statement about “radical leftist” Walz as Harris’ running mate, calling him a “West Coast wannabe.”
“It’s no surprise that liberal Kamala Harris of San Francisco wants West Coast hopeful Tim Walz as her running mate — Walz spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State,” wrote the campaign spokeswoman. Trump, Karoline Leavitt. “Walz is obsessed with spreading California’s dangerously liberal agenda far and wide.”
Vance repeated this rhetoric, telling reporters in Philadelphia on Tuesday that Harris “has chosen a running mate who will be a San Francisco-style liberal.”
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A Harris campaign official argues that this comparison is strained, noting that San Francisco is “a city [Walz] Has spent virtually no time and visited for the first time last month. The official also highlights that Vance lived in San Francisco and began his career there.
The Trump-Vance campaign did not respond to TIME’s request for comment.
Walz and Vance, in particular, will fight in the coming weeks to establish themselves as representing the Midwest and to help their respective presidential candidates win those crucial votes. Vance grew up in Rust Belt Ohio and became famous after the publication of his memoirs Hillbilly elegy in 2016.
At the Republican National Convention in July, Vance used his first speech as Trump’s running mate to present himself as a fighter for the working class. Throughout his speech, he stated that he would work to elevate the interests of blue-collar voters, repeatedly citing Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. “This moment is not about me,” Vance said. “It’s about the auto worker in Michigan wondering why distant politicians are destroying their jobs.”
Now, as the Trump campaign tries to paint Walz as a California liberal, Walz has begun highlighting Vance’s ties to Silicon Valley and Yale University to assert that he is the one who is out of touch with many Americans. As the campaign heats up, voters will look closely at everything from finances to policy to education to speaking style in order, according to Jamieson, to “ascertain the difference between Vance and Walz as to whether they can still identify with the people”. they grew up.
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