‘We feel seen’: Midwestern Democrats soak up the spotlight as Tim Walz ascends at the DNC

CHICAGO — The Midwest has long been considered “flyover country” by many on the coasts. But in Chicago, the Midwest has temporarily taken over as the center of the political universe.

Democratic National Convention delegates roared as Minnesota governor and Midwestern dad Tim Walz took the stage for the biggest speech of his political career.

None were louder than the delegates from Minnesota, whose members cheered their state’s representation on the national stage while wearing Walz’s signature red flannels and camouflage-and-orange Harris-Walz baseball caps.

As Democratic power becomes ever-more concentrated in larger, coastal cities, Midwest progressives have felt increasingly overlooked by the party establishment.

But at the Democratic convention, celebrating Walz’s ascension to the presidential ticket has warmed the hearts of liberals across the heartland looking for a reminder that their party has not forgotten them.

“I think Kamala Harris sent a very loud message to rural America by choosing Tim Walz, and also the Midwest,” Kansas Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly said.

In Iowa, where Democrats are still smarting after the national party stripped the state of its 50-year-old first-in-the-nation status for its presidential caucuses , state House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst said Harris’ VP pick is helping alleviate concerns that the party is abandoning rural America.

“One of the first things I thought after, ‘He's such a great guy, this is going to be amazing,’ is, ‘This means Democrats haven't given up on the middle,’” Konfrst said. “And I've said that 100 times this week. People feel renewed energy. We feel seen.”

Football coach, geography teacher — and potential second-in-command

Walz, who took the stage to John Mellencamp’s “Small Town,” formally accepted his party’s nomination for vice president Wednesday in a speech peppered with references to his own small-town upbringing.

“Growing up in a small town like that, you learn how to take care of each other,” Walz said in his speech. “That family down the road, they may not think like you do, they may not pray like you do. They may not love like you do. But they’re your neighbors.”

Born in West Point, Nebraska, Walz is fluent in the language and culture of the heartland that Democrats say feels authentic rather than performative.

“You can tell those flannel shirts he wears don’t come from some political consultant,” former Democratic President Barack Obama joked during his Tuesday night address. “They come from his closet — and they have been through some stuff.”

Though Walz’s name recognition was significantly lower than the other VP contenders when he was chosen, those who do know him recognize him for his rural roots and unapologetic dad humor.

Beyond fitting the Midwestern personality stereotypes and wholesome image, Walz’s track record as a proud gun owner, card-carrying union member and defender of veterans' care and agriculture issues is familiar to many voters in the Midwest and rural America.

At 17, Walz joined the Army National Guard and later started a career as a public-school teacher until he joined Congress in 2006. There, he served on the Veteran’s Affairs and Agriculture Committee.

For years, Walz was rated ‘A’ by the National Rifle Association, but his stance on gun regulation changed following a series of high-profile mass shootings.

Walz simultaneously embraces a progressive ideology while also submarining several of the ideas people have about Democrats.  It’s potentially a political superpower Harris hopes will appeal not only to Democrats but independents and disaffected Republicans.

“When we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love,” he said Wednesday night, reclaiming some of the language Republicans have deployed for years. “Look, I know guns. I’m a veteran, I’m a hunter, and I was a better shot than most Republicans in Congress, and I’ve got the trophies to prove it. But I’m also a dad. I believe in the Second Amendment, but I also believe our first responsibility is to keep our kids safe.”

Democrats can win in rural America 'when you make it a priority’

Kelly, the Kansas governor, greeted a roomful of rural Democrats at the party’s Rural Council meeting on the second day of the convention. She said she’s constantly being asked about how Democrats can win in rural America — a question she can find exhausting.

"If you listen to some of the news media, you would think that we are some kind of rare, endangered species to be studied under glass at a museum: the rural Democrat,” she said.

But she says there’s no secret sauce.

“You win in rural America when you decide you want to win in rural America,” she said. “When you make it a priority.”

Kenneth Koenig, a 68-year-old Rockdale, Texas, resident and convention attendee, said a friend gifted him the camouflage “Harris-Walz” cap he sported during the meeting.

He and his friend are passionate about representing progressive values in their rural Texas town, and they hope the hat — and Walz’s addition to the ticket — will help pave the way for those conversations. He thinks Democrats and Republicans can unite over issues that plague rural America, including the decline of health care access as rural hospitals close.

Koenig agreed to help another area Democrat hold signs in front of the local Walmart promoting Harris. At first, he wasn’t sure whether the move would be effective.

“I said, 'You know, do you think you're going to change anybody's mind with that?'” Koenig remembers asking the man. “And he told me something that really stuck with me. He says, ‘I'm not trying to change anybody's mind. I'm just trying to let the ones know that really want to vote for Harris that it's OK, that everybody out here is not going to take offense if they vote for her.’”

Letting rural Democrats know they aren’t the only ones living in their communities is half the battle, Kelly said.

"I think a lot of things have happened over the past few years where Democrats feel more comfortable coming out and sort of outing themselves — and I think because they've seen that when they show up, we win,” she said.

In 2022, Kansans shocked the country when they decisively voted down a state constitutional amendment 61% to 39% that would have declared there is no right to an abortion in Kansas.

“The abortion vote was phenomenal in terms of people who live right next door to each other realizing that they share the same values,” Kelly said. “Before, it always got defined by red or blue. And then all of a sudden, it was, this is not a red or blue issue. This is an issue about my life, or your daughter's life. And so, I think they found each other.”

Rural Democrats won’t go ‘silently back into the shadows of the Democratic Party’

For Ashley Burns, a 31-year-old Cedar Rapids, Iowa, resident and convention attendee, the Walz memes are a fun way to engage with a serious issue in politics. At a delegate breakfast Tuesday, she was sporting a T-shirt bearing a slogan in hot pink lettering: “Tim Walz is my Midwest Princess.”

“He's just funny, and he reminds me of my own dad,” Burns said. “And so it means a lot to have someone like that at the top of the ticket.”

The T-shirt is a reference to pop megastar Chappell Roan’s hit album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.” And the phrase has become part of the meme culture surrounding the candidate.

"We are engaging youth in a way that we have not been able to in the past,” Burns said. “I worked for Hillary Clinton in 2016, and so that was difficult. We had a lot of older women volunteers. And now, just to see Swifties for Kamala and all of these organizations — groups of people who are kind of part of the fabric of our nation who are engaging in a new way with politics. They're making politics cool again.”

Isaac Winkler is this year’s youngest delegate to attend the DNC, turning 18 just three days before election day. He said Walz’s presence on the big stage represents a genuineness that is restoring younger voters’ hope for the future of the party.

“Tim Walz brings himself,” he said, “He is who he says he is.”

To Minnesota State Rep. Dan Wolgamott, Walz is the epitome of a true Midwesterner.

“It’s about being a good neighbor,” he told USA TODAY. “We extend that hand, that’s the attitude that Tim Walz has brought to his public service, that’s what’s on display here tonight.”

As many Democrats celebrated rural America’s prominence at this convention, some cautioned that they would need to hold onto that place within the party and demand a seat at the table.

“We're going to have a lot of reasons to be optimistic, and we're going to continue to fight,” former U.S. senator from North Dakota Heidi Heitkamp said at the party’s Rural Council meeting. “And when this election's over, we are not going silently back into the shadows of the Democratic Party.”

Brianne Pfannenstiel is the chief politics reporter for the Des Moines Register. She is also covering the 2024 presidential race for USA TODAY as a senior national campaign correspondent. Reach her at bpfann@dmreg.com or 515-284-8244. Follow her on Twitter at @brianneDMR.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: ‘We feel seen’: Midwestern Democrats soak up the spotlight as Tim Walz ascends at the DNC