Vulnerable Democrats clamor for Walz on campaign trail

Vice President Harris has invigorated her party since becoming the Democratic nominee, lifting the sails of downballot candidates across the country. But it is her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who is the hot commodity on the campaign trail for vulnerable Democrats.

The New Democrat Coalition, whose members include almost two dozen front-liners — the most vulnerable incumbents — has already been in touch with the Harris-Walz campaign to coordinate surrogates on the campaign trail, and Walz has been a popular request.

Even Democrats in safe seats are pressing national party leaders for Walz to swing through their states, hoping he’ll boost turnout to the benefit of Democrats in both the House and Senate.

“People love to spend time with him and they know that he’ll be effective in their districts, and I think that’s really important,” Rep. Ann McLane Kuster (D-N.H.), the chair of the New Democrat Coalition, told The Hill in an interview.

“The kinds of voters that we’re trying to communicate with are people who may have voted for Donald Trump in the past and are disaffected by that, by the vitriol and by the chaos and by the fear that they have about a future with him,” she said. “So they’re taking a second look, and Tim is somebody that they can relate to.”

Walz is a military veteran, hunter, former teacher and football coach, and in many ways contrasts with Harris, who before becoming vice president was a prosecutor, senator and attorney general in California.

Liberal policy positions, particularly those voiced by Harris during her 2020 run for the White House, are being used as ammunition by Republicans to cast Harris as a San Francisco liberal. That’s something that could likely alienate some of the same purple-district voters whom vulnerable Democrats are hoping Walz will win over.

Walz, to be sure, has had his own stumbles on the campaign trail, but many Democrats in different kinds of districts see him as helpful on the campaign trail. Even some of Harris’s staunchest supporters say her No. 2 could communicate better with constituents in some corners of their districts.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), who represents parts of south Florida, for example, said his district “would be good for either” Harris or Walz, but noted that the vice presidential candidate may resonate better than the nominee in some counties.

“The Broward part of my district would love the vice president to come. The Palm Beach side of my district, maybe Tim Walz would do a little bit better there,” Moskowitz said.

Walz is in such demand that it could create a dilemma for Democratic campaign strategists, who are fighting to flip control of the House and hang on to the Senate majority, but are also facing a time crunch to introduce the Harris-Walz ticket to voters on the national stage.

The vice presidential nominee is likely to get pulled in several directions.

Democrats who are in contested races aren’t shy about saying that Walz could visit places where Harris might be less welcome.

Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas), a member of the Blue Dogs and New Democrats who’s in a contested race, raised Texas as an example. Democrats are seeking to hold both his district and Rep. Henry Cuellar’s (D-Texas) seat. Both races are rated “lean Democrat” by the Cook Political Report.

​​“In South Texas he would fit right in, right?” Gonzalez says of Walz.

“He’s somebody who hunts and fishes and plays football, and he sounds very ‘Texas,’ if you ask me. And I think the Democratic Party needed that,” he said. “I’d like to see him in South Texas at some point in the campaign trail in the next … six, eight weeks. I think he’d bring a lot of value to places like Texas.”

Gonzalez is not the only Texas Democrat calling for a Walz visit. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, a liberal lawmaker representing a progressive district centered in Austin, said the Minnesota governor would be a huge help to Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas), who is vying to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in the upper chamber.

“The whole idea of having a teacher and a coach out talking to teachers and coaches … there’s a lot of enthusiasm,” Doggett said.

Rep. Greg Landsman (D), a front-liner from Ohio, for example, said Walz would be an asset in battleground districts, but questioned if the campaign would send their No. 2 to a non-swing state. Purple districts in those key states, he said, would be more realistic targets.

“I think the larger question is where is their time most valuable? And they’ve picked their states. At least for the moment they’re going to be focused on Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Georgia,” Landsman said. “But I think in those states I wouldn’t be surprised if he, they, both show up in battleground districts, too, in battleground states because of that broader appeal that they have.”

Teddy Tschann, a spokesperson for the Minnesota governor, said Walz is intent on helping any and all Democrats win tough races, but declined to specify where he might go to achieve that goal.

“Governor Tim Walz is barnstorming the country to reach voters in critical battlegrounds nationwide, bringing an exciting, forward-looking message about opportunity and freedom that will help elect Democrats up and down the ticket this November,” Tschann said in an email.

Walz on Thursday visited North Carolina — a toss-up state at the presidential level that also features a contested House race in its 1st District, where first-term Rep. Don Davis (D-N.C.) is battling to keep his seat. On Friday, Walz was in Wisconsin, another battleground state, where Democrats are also hoping to pick off two vulnerable House Republicans — Reps. Derrick Van Orden and Bryan Steil — while propping up Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D).

The Minnesota governor has experience in turning over a GOP seat. In 2006, he defeated a six-term Republican incumbent to win election to the House in one of the largest upsets that cycle. The district has a checkered political history, voting for former Presidents George W. Bush, Obama and Trump.

Walz is also unique in that as a former House member, he has a breadth of legislative and campaign experience — and relationships — that can come in handy.

“The fact that he is so connected to the House, that’s different than what we’ve seen for a long, long, long time,” Kuster said. “We’ve seen people coming to the White House either from the Senate or from governors.”

“But the House is very close to the people. Voting every two years, going home every week, we spend a lot of time with our constituency, and it’s kind of, there’s an immediate feedback that I think Tim is going to be very, very effective at staying connected with House members,” she continued. “He already has been.”

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