Tim Walz faces stark return to reality as Minnesota governor after whirlwind run for VP
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Gov. Tim Walz took the stage at the Eagan High School auditorium on Friday to reprise his role as Minnesota’s governor after months of flying high in the political stratosphere in an unsuccessful bid to be vice president.
After spending three months crisscrossing the country campaigning, Walz spoke in front of a massive American flag for about 20 minutes.
He told the assembled Democratic leaders, Minnesota agency heads and other supporters that the result of the election wasn’t what he expected, but he pledged to fuel his energy into maintaining a raft of policies that lawmakers approved on his watch.
“It’s hard to lose, it’s hard to understand, while so many of our fellow citizens, people that we have fought so long and hard for, wound up choosing the other path. It's hard to reckon with what that path looks like over the next four years,” Walz read from a teleprompter, a tool he long avoided as governor but embraced as a vice presidential candidate.
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“The other side spent a lot of time campaigning and talking about and promising that they would leave things up to the states, but I'm willing to take them at their word for that,” he continued. “But the moment they try and bring a hateful agenda in this state, I’m going to stand ready to stand up and fight.”
First lady Gwen Walz preceded him on stage.
“Losing stings, yes,” she said. “And it’s okay to feel sad and scared and a little surprised, if I’m being honest, and to give yourself the grace to grieve what could have been but moments like this ask us to reflect on what matters most, to reflect on what it is that we are fighting for.”
Her husband encouraged the country — and the state of Minnesota — to come together following a divisive election.
“For my part I’m going to try even harder to do that as governor,” Walz said. “Nobody — not the DFLers, not Republicans — nobody has a monopoly on good intentions or good ideas.”
But that could be a challenge as the governor comes home to a new political landscape in Minnesota.
Republicans broke up the DFL hold on control at the Capitol on Tuesday. While Democrats hung onto a one-seat lead in the Senate, they appear to be tied with Republicans in the House. Barring a change in upcoming recounts, that means that the parties will jointly run the chamber in 2025.
GOP lawmakers haven’t forgotten how Democrats passed rafts of progressive policies over the last two years. They’ve celebrated the breakup of the House DFL majority and said they’d hold Democrats accountable. And Tuesday’s election results showed that Minnesota has become more politically split compared to past cycles.
He delivered brief remarks before departing without taking questions from reporters. Walz hasn’t stood for a news conference with the Minnesota press corps in months as campaigning took him out across the country.
After Vice President Kamala Harris conceded the race to President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday, Walz returned to Minnesota and to another two years in the term he won in 2022. He hasn’t said whether he would pursue a third term as governor or potentially line himself up for another political endeavor.
In St. Paul, signs of the transition emerged, too. Security blockades outside of the governor’s temporary residence at Eastcliff were taken down.
House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, and House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said they’re working together on a power sharing agreement and are researching other states with tied-control, as well as state history since a 67-67 split has happened once before.
Hortman said she’d hoped Walz would ascend to vice president but he’s been a strong partner in the governor’s office.
“He’s a pretty damn good governor, and I'm looking forward to working with him some more,” Hortman said Wednesday.
Demuth said the new power dynamic will give Republicans a better opportunity to hold Walz accountable for DFL policy changes and have a seat at the table in negotiations.
“Our priority is restoring transparency and accountability in the state of Minnesota,” she said Wednesday. “We are 67-67 and we are equal parts of that Legislature.”
Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks, said he hopes to see a different Walz than the one he dealt with over the past two years, where Republicans felt left out in the cold.
“I certainly hope that he comes back a humbler governor and we can just turn the page on all that rhetoric that he’s been talking out on the campaign trail these past few months. It’s been pretty divisive,” Johnson said on MPR’s Politics Friday show.
“He was not good at building those relationships with Republicans,” Johnson continued. “He was not good at building the trust. And so I’m hoping that this is an opportunity to build trust and actually get things done for the people of Minnesota.”