There might not be another governor in America who has done more with less than Minnesota’s Tim Walz.
With a one-seat Democratic majority in the state Senate this year, Walz signed laws that , the president recently grilled his own staff on his low poll numbers and how they plan to communicate better on the economy. The same story also reported that Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D), who is running for U.S. Senate in Michigan, expressed concern she could not win her race with Biden at the top of the ticket.
In Walz’s home state of Minnesota, there are warning lights blinking. In 2016, Trump almost won the state, but in 2020, Biden carried it by seven points. A recent poll from MinnPost found Biden ahead of Trump by three points, well within the survey’s margin of error.
For his part, Walz blamed that situation on a “fractured media market” in which people “go and get validation of their own positions.” He also demurred when asked if Biden’s campaign needed to invest more in marginal battleground states like Minnesota, given tight poll numbers.
Like many top Democrats, Walz is confident that the president’s standing will improve if and when voters see the 2024 election as a choice between Biden and Trump. “Joe Biden’s age will be a distant third or fourth in their minds,” he said.
“My biggest fear is complacency,” Walz admitted. “And that’s the one that I think these types of polls might snap Democrats out of that complacency and say, ‘Look, you know, I’m not thrilled about his age, but god dang, he’s still delivering.”
“Everybody wants to do the horse race. I’m not a big fan of the horse race. I’m more of a fan of let’s just focus on where our end result is, keep grinding it out,” he continued. “And governors are great messengers in that.”
Next November will represent voters’ verdict on Biden’s record, and Walz’s too, in more ways than one. While national eyes will focus on whether Democrats can win key governor races, in Minnesota, voters will return their judgment on his party’s ambitious agenda in deciding whether to award them another two years running the state legislature.
Both results will impact Walz’s political future and, potentially, the appeal of his playbook of muscling ambitious policy through tight margins.
For now, the governor laughs at online discourse from liberal commentators who are flabbergasted that Minnesota’s paper-thin Democratic majority made legislative supermajorities in more left-leaning states look positively lazy.
“Here’s the thing on it,” Walz said.” How popular is reproductive rights? How popular is paid family and medical leave? How popular is school lunches? Those things poll incredibly high. And so yes, they are progressive ideas, but they’re also super popular. And I think that’s the issue that we showed, and I hope it’s the model for the rest of the country. Go bold on things that improve people’s lives and are popular, and you’ll be rewarded for it.”
