- cross-posted to:
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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Summary
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s running mate, suffered a personal setback in the 2024 election as he lost his home county, Blue Earth, to President-elect Donald Trump.
Trump won 49.6% of the vote there, while Harris received 48.3%, marking a symbolic defeat for Walz, who built his political career in the area.
Walz, a former teacher and congressman known for his moderate stance, had previously turned a Republican seat Democratic and won Minnesota’s governorship by a large margin in 2018.
His campaign faced challenges, including scrutiny over past statements about military service, which the Trump campaign leveraged as a “Stolen Valor” issue.
My understanding is that Trump did not outperform his 2020 returns and Harris did not outperform Biden’s 2020 returns. We didn’t get more Trump voters than pat elections, we just got fewer Democratic voters. Why was Democratic turnout so bad? Was it really because Harris was too liberal? I haven’t seen any evidence of that. I suspect that it’s because Harris isn’t very charismatic (compared to candidates like Obama or Bill Clinton). I also suspect that turnout was low because Harris was talking more about maintaining the status quo instead of talking about change. If she was more liberal then maybe more of the base would be motivated to turn out? IDK but I’m sure there will be a million think pieces on the topic 😔