Tim Walz leans on football to help Democrats find the playbook to win back the working class
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
- Tim Walz frequently invoked his time as a football coach during his major convention speech.
- Walz served over a decade in Congress and is in his second term as governor of Minnesota.
- But it's his connection to the nation's most popular sport that might be one of his biggest assets.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz has a lengthy political résumé. But as he introduced himself to the nation, it was his time in the classroom and on the sidelines that he relied on the most.
If the subtext was too subtle, Walz, the Minnesota governor, summoned the delegates inside the United Center in Chicago on Wednesday for a final pep talk before the end of the game.
"Let me finish with this, team: It's the fourth quarter, we're down a field goal, but we're on offense and we've got the ball," Walz said, wrapping up the marquee speech of Day 3 of the convention. "We're driving down the field. And boy, do we have the right team."
Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign is hopeful that Walz can call back to his rural roots as Democrats try to narrow the margin in a part of the country where Trump has run up the score. When she introduced her running mate, Harris took care to call him Coach Walz, a nod to how the Minnesotan's love for football could also help him build inroads with voters. On Wednesday night, delegates were wielding "Coach Walz" signs.
Before Walz took the stage, members of the Mankato West High School football team who played under Walz when he was the team's assistant coach took the convention stage.
"We played through to the whistle on every single play and we even won a state championship," Walz said. "Never close the yearbook people. But it was those players and those students that inspired me to run for Congress."
Sports could get Harris' message in front of voters.
Baseball might be the nation's national pastime, but football is the king in modern America. The National Football League routinely dominates the most-watched live TV programs every year. Now, thanks to high school and college football plus the NFL, live games are available every day of the week starting in the fall. Sports is one of the few connective tissues that binds rural, suburban, and urban America together.
It makes sense why after Harris picked Walz, there were jokes about him making a guest appearance on ESPN's "College Gameday," the long-running pregame show that unofficially kicks off Saturdays for the most popular non-professional sport in the nation. President Barack Obama understood the power of sport, too. His yearly March Madness brackets exposed him to an audience that didn't watch cable news daily.
It remains to be seen if the strategy will work. As NBC News' Steve Kornacki documented, Walz didn't show any standout strength in rural Minnesota when he ran for reelection in 2022. Walz was virtually identical compared to President Joe Biden's performance two years earlier. He even lost his old congressional district by 8 percentage points.
Walz only briefly touched on his past as a moderate in Congress.
Walz is considered a progressive favorite now, but he first rose to power representing a swing district in rural Minnesota that Republicans had held for over a century. He stayed in Congress for 12 years. The popular high school teacher, veteran, and gun owner once touted the National Rifle Association's support. But he still took tough votes like supporting the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. As The Washington Post's James Hohmann noted, Walz managed to cling to his seat in 2010 even as the Tea Party wave wiped out more conservative Democrats.
"I learned how to work across the aisle on issues like growing the rural economy and taking care of veterans," Walz said. "And I learned how to compromise without compromising my values."
As governor, Walz has overseen a raft of progressive priorities that became law, from universal policies like school lunches and background checks for gun owners to enshrining abortion rights into law. This résumé made his once slim chances to become Harris' running mate a reality. Republicans think that his record makes the Harris-Walz ticket open to attacks.
"While other states were banning books from their schools, we were banning hunger from ours," Walz said.
The bar is very low to be considered a good running mate.
Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, has left a very low bar for Walz. Vance is even more unpopular than Sarah Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee. Vance's popularity has cratered amid a reexamination of his past comments about "childless cat ladies." According to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, Vance has a -17 percentage point favorability rating compared to Walz's 11 percentage point rating.
Vance, who would be one of the youngest vice presidents in history, has been in the US Senate for little more than 18 months. He has never held any other elected office. Walz has spent far more time in public office, but its his experience coaching football that might be the biggest asset he brings to the Democratic Party's ticket.