EAU CLAIRE, Wisconsin – Linda and Mike Kelly said they haven’t felt this excited for an election since Barack Obama was running for president in 2008.
“I feel like Kamala (Harris) is bringing new energy to the party and energizing young folks again,” Linda Kelly, 68, said. “And Tim (Walz) is from our neck of the woods, so that’s even more exciting.”
Mike Kelly, 70, grew up in a conservative household, but hasn’t voted for a Republican since Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. The couple drove nearly three hours from their home in Herbster, Wisconsin, to join thousands of others to attend the Harris-Walz rally in the western Wisconsin city of Eau Claire on Wednesday, Walz’s second day as Harris’ running mate.
“He’s governed with humility and dignity, and he’s an honest, down-to-earth guy,” Linda Kelly said.
Hundreds of freshly minted “Harris-Walz” signs dotted the Eau Claire Event District as Walz greeted attendees.
“Hello, Eau Claire – Isn’t it good to have a candidate who can pronounce the name correctly?” Walz said just after reaching the podium, eliciting a roar from the Wisconsin crowd.
The Eau Claire rally came just a day after Walz was officially announced as Harris’ running mate Tuesday morning, and introduced during a Philadelphia rally later that day. The Minnesota governor came out on top in a veepstakes that was whittled down to Walz, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly over the weekend.
During his remarks, which came in just shy of 16 minutes, Walz pointed to his rural roots as a Nebraska native and teacher for 20 years in southern Minnesota. Appealing to Midwestern values of respecting one’s neighbors, he framed Republican efforts to ban things like abortion and gender-affirming care as attacks on personal choices.
“Even if we wouldn’t make the same choices for ourselves, we know there’s a golden rule – mind your own damn business,” Walz told the crowd. “I don’t need you telling us about our health care, I don’t need you telling us who we’re going to love and I sure the hell don’t need you telling us what book we’re going to read,” the governor said.
Related | Walz won over Harris with a rare ability to reach AOC as well as Joe Manchin
Walz then turned his attention to his Republican opponents, again referring to them as “weird” – an attack that has caught on in recent weeks, and prompted “they’re so weird” chants from supporters. He also criticized former President Donald Trump’s record during his time in office, and went after Ohio Sen. and Trump running mate, JD Vance’s credibility.
“Just like all of us in regular America we go to Yale, then we have our careers funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, then you write a book about the place you grew up and you trash that place,” Walz said. “We’re better than that.”
Much of Walz’s speech echoed the one he gave in Philadelphia.
In less than three weeks, Harris moved to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket and Walz became her vice presidential nominee following President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the race for his reelection. The decision came on the heels of a disastrous debate performance, which inflamed concerns within the Democratic Party about whether the 81-year-old incumbent could effectively govern for another four years if he won in November.
Walz touted Harris’ record as a prosecutor, California Attorney General and U.S. senator before bringing her to the stage Wednesday.
Citing Trump’s felony convictions and sexual abuse allegations, Harris said she’d “proudly put my record up against his any day of the week.”
“In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds – predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, scammers who broke the rules for personal gain,” she said. “So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump’s type.”
Related | Odds were definitely not zero for Walz. Here’s how Minnesota’s governor became Harris’ running mate
Eau Claire resident Astreia Bauer, 45, said she’s very excited about Harris as the new Democratic nominee – excited enough that she canceled everything she had planned on Wednesday to attend the rally instead.
“I think she’s (Harris) somebody who will stand up for all types of people, those who look like me, women’s rights, transgender rights, all of the above,” she said. “She hasn’t insulted anyone either, so that’s why I’m here.”
Bauer admitted she doesn’t know much about Walz and wasn’t familiar with him before the announcement on Tuesday. But, she said, she’s looking forward to learning more about him before November.
“Just him being a Midwesterner, she’s now got a running mate that understands the culture around here, and I think that’s pretty awesome,” Bauer said.
While Harris and Walz were conducting their rally, Sen. JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate, appeared at an Eau Claire aviation equipment company to bash the new Democratic ticket.
Vance gave a version of Trump’s standard stump speech, which recently replaced President Biden with Harris as the person to blame for inflation and an increase in undocumented immigrants to the nation, two issues that resonate with voters.
He also attacked Walz, saying he “leaned into the defund the police radicalism,” and blamed Walz for the uprising in Minneapolis after George Floyd’s murder.
Walz did not support a city ballot measure that would have replaced the police department with a public-health oriented Department of Public Safety.
GOP attacks on Walz have just started. Vance is shadowing Harris and Walz as the new Democratic ticket tours swing states this week. He said that’s necessary because the media “refuses to ask (Harris) questions” and he had to set the record straight.
Vance did take questions, but only from local reporters whom he apparently thought would be more friendly. Yet a couple of those reporters asked about Walz’s use of “weird” to describe the Trump-Vance team, a put-down that has caught on with Democrats across the nation.
Vance asked event participants if they had watched Walz’s first rally with Harris in Philadelphia on Tuesday. He said that at the end of that rally Walz gave his wife Gwen “a firm handshake” instead of hugging her.
“That’s pretty weird, that’s pretty weird,” he said.
In reality, Walz grabbed Gwen’s outstretched hand and pulled her into a hug.
Vance also showed up in front of the vice president’s plane in Eau Claire to address the awaiting media, continuing his call for Harris to take questions from the media.
Walz is expected to continue alongside Harris this week on a five-day tour of several battleground states. The next stop for the duo is Michigan, followed by North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada. A planned trip to Savannah, Georgia, has since been canceled due to Hurricane Debby.
MinnPost reporter Ana Radelat contributed to this story.
Mohamed Ibrahim
Mohamed Ibrahim is MinnPost’s environment and public safety reporter. He can be reached at mibrahim@minnpost.com.
Ana Radelat
Ana Radelat is MinnPost’s Washington, D.C. correspondent. You can reach her at aradelat@minnpost.com or follow her on Twitter at @radelat.
