Gov. Tim Walz (D-Minn.) in a new interview said he warned Vice President Harris that he can be a “train wreck” before joining her presidential campaign.
“I said about 90 percent of the time, I can be really good, but about 10 percent of the time, I can be a train wreck because I’m speaking from the heart, like a teacher sitting in a teachers lounge or a laborer sitting at the break table,” Walz said in an interview with New York Magazine when asked about his time on the trail with former Vice President Harris.
Harris picked Walz as her running mate, vaulting the Minnesota governor to the national stage.
“I thought they would choose the district attorney and the teacher over the hedge-fund manager and the billionaire,” he added.
Harris and Walz were defeated in the presidential race by President Trump and Vice President Vance, the GOP ticket.
Walz said the Democratic ticket wasn’t able to be bold in their approach with voters which ultimately cost them in their bid for the White House.
“Maybe we’re not aspirational,” the Minnesota governor said of his party.
Walz said he pushed progressive policies but it didn’t expand the realm for educated workers seeking opportunity.
“I heard this from someone who said, with Democratic go-to messages, basically to Black men, these Democratic politicians led with ‘We restored felon voting rights,’ and the Black men said, ‘But we’re not felons, we’re MBAs looking for capital,’” he told New York magazine.
“The restoration of felon voting rights is important — I did that in Minnesota — but it’s not aspirational. With Donald Trump, everything’s gold-plated and he’s hanging around with these stars, and I don’t know if we do enough of that.”
Walz said Democrats have struggled to connect with voters well before last year's presidential race, adding that Harris had little time to prepare after President Biden dropped out of the presidential race.
“Well, I won’t critique the campaign. They need to do what they need to do, but I don’t think Vice-President Harris got to be bold. We were dealing with a short runway. That was that one election,” he said.
“ I think it would be foolish for us to take a ton of lessons from that because this has been going on for several cycles, certainly since 2016, that we are really struggling to broaden our appeal and energize folks.”
While Walz has hammered down publicly on areas for improvement and the party’s room for growth, Harris has kept quiet and signed on to a top talent agency for representation as have other Biden administration officials.
Harris may be considering a bid for governor of California in the 2026 election cycle as Democrats still seek a strong candidate for the 2028 presidential election.
