Gentle start to governor's race shaping up as Trump proxy fight

Minnesota's recalibrated race for governor began Wednesday with the DFL and Republican nominees sizing up one another and the shadow President Trump casts over the race.

Newly minted Republican nominee Jeff Johnson didn't exactly come out of the gate swinging at Tim Walz, his DFL opponent for the next 12 weeks.

"I like Tim. I think people will like Tim. I think most people like me, so hopefully it won't turn into a mudslinging contest," said the Hennepin County commissioner, adding that voters will find enough differences in where each candidate would take the state, so the race shouldn't become personal.

"I talk a lot about our state agencies having too much power and having an arrogance about them. I don't hear that at all from Tim Walz. I talk about trying to give Minnesotans more choice, more freedom, more competition in their health care," Johnson said. "He talks about single-payer health care, which means government takes over your health care. You don't even have private health care anymore."

Johnson said Walz is too open to raising taxes and not committed to enforcing immigration laws.

"He left out the confiscating puppies?" responded Walz.

The six-term congressman sees Johnson as a hard worker, noting how he often ran into the Republican as both made far-flung campaign stops in recent months. Walz topped state Rep. Erin Murphy and Attorney General Lori Swanson in the DFL primary Tuesday.

Walz said he and Johnson generally get along.

"We just have two fundamentally different visions of this state. We have two fundamentally different visions of governing," Walz said.

He said he's not going to let Johnson get away with demonizing government or the services it provides.

"What exactly are you going to cut? What are you going to do? What are you going to take away? And what is the vision that what you're saying is going to make a difference in people's lives?" Walz said. "We're going to make the difference and they're going to see the value."

The two will have plenty of chances to make their contrasts in person. A few debates are already on the calendar, including a televised joint appearance on TPT's "Almanac" program this Friday.

In many ways, the race is also a proxy fight over Trump. The president formally endorsed Johnson, by tweet, a day after he beat former Gov. Tim Pawlenty in the Republican primary.

Johnson welcomed Trump to campaign in the state for him even as he acknowledged it cuts both ways.

"There are some people who will vote for me solely because I support the president and some who will not vote for me solely because I support the president. There is, frankly, not much I can do on either of those edges," he said. "But I think the vast majority of Minnesotans are in the middle of that."

Walz has already used Trump as a foil in his campaign ads and remarks. And he did it again Wednesday.

"I would make the case that it is pretty obvious that you can pretty much plug and play anybody in the current Republican policy," Walz said. "We're certainly not running against Donald Trump. But they will run on that very same philosophy."

Republican Party Chair Jennifer Carnahan expects the Trump team to send word soon about possible Minnesota campaign appearances in the weeks ahead.

"There are a lot of people out there who support the president and they just do it silently," Carnahan said. "And we saw that in 2016. President Trump won 78 of our 87 counties. That's significant. He came within one-and-a-half points and that was with no effort in Minnesota. There was no ground game in this state in 2016."

Her counterpart, DFL Chair Ken Martin, is already tying Johnson to Trump. Martin has his own Trump welcome mat out.

"Every time Donald Trump comes it fires up our base," he said. "It fires up DFLers, and we'd welcome Donald Trump back into this state any time."