Tim Waltz said he and Kamala Harris were “safe” during the 2024 election campaign, and that former vice presidential candidates should hold more in-person events in the United States.
“This shouldn’t have been played that safely,” said Waltz, the Minnesota governor, as Democrats learned the lessons of Donald Trump’s victory in November and led him into the political wilderness.
Walz, widely seen as one of the Democrats’ most effective messengers against Trump and Vance in 2024, became most famous for his frequent accounts of the pair “strange” and said he and Harris were hampered by the shortened length of the campaign.
Harris effectively became the official Democratic candidate on August 5, just three months before the election, and Waltz said the reduced time frame limits the amount of risk the campaign can take.
“These are things you could have gotten your ocean feet.
He added: “(But) after you lose, you need to go back and evaluate where everything is. I think it’s one area.
Walz’s verdict was that he and Harris should have spent more time directly involved with the Americans as they ran through the 107-day campaign.
“I think you should have rolled the dice and did City Hall, where (voteers) might say, ‘You’re full of shit, I don’t believe in you,'” he told Politico. “I think there could have been more.”
Walz returned to the national spotlight recently, making more television appearances, and last week saw a fundraising event in front of 1,000 Democrats in his hometown. His use of social media and Folksy’s appearance in television interviews were praised in the early parties of the 2024 campaign, with Walz suggesting that he and Harris could do more.
He told Politico that Democrats “as a party, they are “more cautious” when engaging with mainstream and non-traditional media. The former high school football coach added: “In football terminology, we were defending our defenses (a strategy that focuses on rough defenses rather than teams attacking), and we couldn’t help but not lose.
Get the most important US headlines and highlights sent directly to you every morning
Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising, and content funded by external parties. For more information, please refer to our Privacy Policy. We use Google Recaptcha to protect our website and the application of Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
After the newsletter promotion
Harris and Waltz voted for 226 people in the 312 electoral college votes, losing about 1.5% in the national vote. Republicans also won both houses. Waltz said he is part of the liability for the loss because “If you’re on a ticket and can’t win, it’s your fault.”
The 2028 Democratic presidential primary is expected to be extremely crowded, with Democrats boasting several well-known governors and Waltz, who has yet to decide whether to serve his third term as Minnesota governor, has stolen his heart as to whether he will run, saying he hasn’t said “no.”
“We have to win, so I’m trying to stay in the arena and try to help,” Waltz said. “And I always say this: I do everything on my own (help) and like I said, with the Vice President, if it was me, I’ll do the job.”
