Gov. Tim Walz vowed on Friday to make Minnesota a secure haven for the values that drove the Democratic presidential ticket he helped lead, whereas on the identical time promising to work tougher to know the considerations of President-elect Donald Trump’s voters.
Inside a highschool auditorium in Eagan, Minnesota, a suburb simply south of Minneapolis-St. Paul, Walz addressed a crowd of supporters along with his reflections on Trump’s election victory, an consequence he stated left him trying to find solutions.
“It’s exhausting to know why so a lot of our fellow residents, individuals who we’ve got fought so lengthy and exhausting for, wound up selecting the opposite path,” Walz stated. “It’s exhausting to reckon with what that path seems like for the following 4 years.”
Several viewers members donned Harris Walz camo marketing campaign hats and exchanged hugs earlier than the governor took the stage. They gave him a standing ovation and chanted his identify as he and his spouse, Gwen Walz, delivered remarks.
Tim Walz thanked Kamala Harris for choosing him as her operating mate and for her friendship. His ascension to the Democratic ticket allowed him to study extra in regards to the nation he had hoped to function vp, he stated. Even within the face of defeat and a polarized political local weather, Walz maintained that almost all Americans shared comparable considerations.
“People really need the identical basic items out of an American life. And I wish to be clear after I say basic items. I imply issues like significant work, secure neighborhoods, good faculties, reasonably priced high quality well being care. But I additionally imply one thing extra,” Walz stated. “It turned clear to me, individuals need safety. I imply that broadly. They wish to really feel like their life is constructed on a stable basis that received’t collapse below them.”
Walz additionally stated Americans wished the liberty to reside their lives as they see match, a message that had been a cornerstone of the Harris-Walz marketing campaign. To that finish, Walz promised to make Minnesota a bulwark towards a second Trump administration’s potential assaults on abortion rights, immigrants and labor unions.
“Look, we all know what’s coming down the pike. We comprehend it as a result of they instructed us,” Walz stated. “The second they attempt to carry a hateful agenda on this state, I’m going to face prepared to face up and battle.”
Walz returned residence from the presidential marketing campaign path to a brand new period of divided state authorities, now that Republicans seem to have damaged the total Democratic management that helped put him on Kamala Harris’ radar. He was elected governor in 2018 and was reelected in 2022 in an election that handed Democrats each chambers of the state Legislature.
In his remarks on Friday, Walz touted a number of of insurance policies Democrats had been in a position to implement throughout that interval, together with stronger protections for abortion rights, youngster tax credit, paid household and medical depart, free college meals for all children and gun security measures. Those coverage victories allowed him to inform a narrative on the presidential marketing campaign path about Minnesota’s progress, he stated.
First woman of Minnesota Gwen Walz, who usually joined her husband on the marketing campaign path, stated Minnesota would stay a secure haven. In processing the election outcomes, she stated the Walzes have discovered solace of their favourite bible verse: “I’ve fought the great battle, I’ve completed the race, and I’ve stored the religion.”
“Minnesota, we’ve got stored the religion,” Gwen Walz stated.
Even because the governor implored opponents of Trump’s agenda to maintain preventing, he additionally known as on all Americans to bridge political divides that widened in the course of the election.
“Maybe once we get a bit break rom this marketing campaign, we can have a look at one another and see not enemies, however neighbors,” Walz stated. “Maybe will sit down over a espresso, or a Diet Mountain Dew and simply speak.”
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Associated Press author Steve Karnowski contributed to this report.