First, there was skepticism.
“Really?” I asked MinnPost’s state government reporter Peter Callaghan when he told me the Monday after the July 4th holiday weekend that Walz’s name was being floated as one of many possible VP contenders should President Biden drop out and Vice President Kamala Harris get the nomination.
So what if Walz’s name was out there? He was one of five Democratic governors mentioned in a CNN report about quiet discussions taking place within the Democratic Party. The possibility, especially because Biden was refusing to go anywhere at that point, seemed quite remote. MinnPost Washington, D.C., reporter Ana Radelat had briefly mentioned it the week before in a story about Walz leading a governors’ meeting with Biden.
Still, we decided all the “ifs,” all the dominoes involved, were worth explaining to our readers. As the Democratic Governors Association and chair of the Democratic National Committee’s rules committee, Walz might somehow find himself in the middle of a big story.
On July 10, Peter wrote, “Minnesota’s Walz as VP? The odds aren’t zero as Biden struggles to prove his electability.” We thought there was a good chance we wouldn’t write again about Walz as a VP contender. Lists around that time in The New York Times, Newsweek and Forbes passed him over completely. But then we looked at the clicks. While Peter’s story didn’t get quite as many eyeballs on our site that day as a headline about MyPillow facing eviction in Shakopee, the attention kept growing.
Related | Hello Walz: An A to Z assessment of the congressman, governor and VP candidate from Minnesota
A week later, Walz was taking Trump’s new running mate Sen. JD Vance to task over his views of rural America. After Biden dropped out July 21, Walz was doing cable TV and podcast interviews left and right. He clearly wanted the job of Harris’ running mate.
At MinnPost, we pivoted our coverage. Peter did the logical next story, explaining that “the odds aren’t zero” that Minnesota could see its first female governor and first Black lieutenant governor in Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and Sen. Bobby Joe Champion. Not only that, Flanagan could become the first female Native American governor of any state.
In Washington, Ana — who initially was skeptical of Walz’s chances — was now telling me over the phone, “Your governor’s star is rising.” She wrote “A” and “B” copy to prepare for Harris’ announcement as we constantly checked for any timing updates we could find.
I was relieved the news didn’t leak out during my trip last Saturday to Valley Fair. Imagine getting the news that Walz was picked while on a roller coaster with your kids (although that sure would have fit the whole narrative here).
On Monday afternoon, as rain hammered on the roof at MinnPost, I mulled whether to send one of our reporters to a Democratic fundraiser where Walz was to briefly appear. What if Harris’ decision leaked during that? Conscious of what could be very busy days ahead, we decided to save our energy.
I was in my kitchen preparing breakfast Tuesday morning when I saw CNN anchor Jim Acosta’s tweet citing multiple sources saying it was Walz. This was actually happening.
We posted Ana’s initial story and gathered some reaction. Peter drove over to Eastcliff, the temporary governor’s residence, to check out the scene. Walz didn’t appear, but his son Gus came out to greet a neighbor and said, “It’s going to be an exciting time!” Peter also snapped a picture of corn growing on the grounds and posted it on X, attracting 52,000 views and 150 retweets.
Neighbors were already filled with optimism for a Harris-Walz victory in November.
“It’s been really fun having him down here. It’s added some excitement, especially now about this great new news,” Flannery Delaney told Peter as she was passing by on her bike commute to work. “I love Walz. I’ll miss him as governor but Peggy Flanagan will be great too.”
Peter wrote his final installment, “Odds definitely weren’t zero for Walz,” the day of the announcement, and the requests for Peter and Ana to speak on national and international radio, podcast and TV news shows started pouring in. BBC and Monocle listeners in the U.K. heard Ana, while hosts on The Bulwark, Here and Now and NewsNation asked Peter to weigh in on just about everything: free school lunch, Walz’s handling of divided government, the trifecta, even tampons.
Walz’s ascension to the VP slot has certainly been an interesting story to cover these last few weeks, but just as interesting is that earlier ascension MinnPost has covered from his transition from social studies teacher to congressional candidate in a red district.
Boston Globe political reporter Sam Brodey, who used to be MinnPost’s Washington reporter, noted on X that when he started covering the Minnesota congressional delegation in 2015, “Amy Klobuchar was on all the VP/2020 lists, Al Franken was on the rise, Keith Ellison was a national leader of the left, and Tim Walz was just the nice guy who beat them at the annual Hotdish Competition.”
What a ride. I guess when the odds aren’t zero, be ready for it.
Elizabeth Dunbar
Elizabeth Dunbar is the editor of MinnPost. She can be reached at edunbar@minnpost.com or on Twitter @edunbarMN.
