Tim Walz loses the election and travels to Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS — Tim Walz's brief time on the national stage has come to an anti-climatic end.

“To Governor Walz and the Walz family: I know you will continue to serve our nation,” Vice President Kamala Harris said during her concession speech Wednesday in Washington, D.C. A visibly emotional Walz clapped and waved at his vice president.

Instead of traveling to the nation's capital, the Minnesota governor will return to St. Paul, where he has two more years of job to do in his second term and where the political landscape in his backyard is shifting a bit toward Republicans seems to tend. The 60-year-old former vice presidential candidate returns to a state where his party previously had control of all major levers of power but may lose some of that power depending on this year's election results, which are still being counted.

The three months Walz has spent since becoming Harris' vice president have been marked by both highs and lows. The former high school football assistant landed a prime-time speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and entered the campaign alongside the likes of former President Barack Obama and singer Jon Bon Jovi.

He also made a number of memorable and unavoidable gaffes, such as claiming he was friends with school shooters during the vice presidential debate and exaggerating his time in China. He also struggled to distance himself from his increasingly liberal record in the North Star State to win middle America's blue-collar voters over to Harris.

Harris' campaign had a plan for choosing her vice president, chosen in the tumultuous moments after Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic leader and not long after he began publicly calling out Donald Trump in viral videos and on social media to describe it as “strange”.

A veteran, Democrats deployed Walz on farms, schools and abortion clinics, where he touted his record as a teacher and union member with his roots on Nebraska farms and his successes in protecting reproductive rights. He also took an alternative approach to playing the role of attack dog for the vice presidential candidate with his own version of a gentle, cheerful warrior.

But Harris contradicted conventional wisdom that she needed a moderate, swing leader as her candidate to get 270 Electoral College votes — rather than a liberal from a state that would all but certainly vote for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2024 as was ultimately the case.

To the surprise of many political observers, Harris chose Walz over a number of other high-profile politicians seen as crucial to victory in battleground states, such as Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

The commonwealth's crucial 19 electoral votes went to Trump, contributing to the demise of the Democratic vote by blocking their path to winning the Blue Wall Midwestern trio that included Wisconsin and Michigan – and subsequently the presidency. Arizona's eleven electoral votes also appear to go to Trump.

A largely unknown figure, Walz quickly gained some internet notoriety due to his unique perspective on progressive masculinity and the appeal of his Midwestern dad-next-door. His name recognition remained the lowest among the four major party candidates throughout his campaign, but his favorability among those who knew him remained the highest of all.

His only debate last month with now Vice President-elect JD Vance was seen by some as a disappointment to the well-known debater Walz was known for in Minnesota, who often faltered compared to the educated, experienced lawyer.

Walz's term as Minnesota governor runs through 2027, but it is unclear whether he will seek re-election to a third term. The state Democratic Party has had control of both chambers of the Legislature since 2022, allowing Walz to pass sweeping progressive policies, but a close battle for the House could result in a tie and end Walz's party's trifecta.

His lieutenant governor, Peggy Flanagan, gained national attention after Harris selected Walz when she assumed gubernatorial duties and, had Walz won, would have become the first Indigenous woman to hold that high office.

— Sam Woodward is the Minnesota elections reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach them at [email protected].

Tim Walz loses the election and travels to Minnesota

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