Tim Walz Surprised That Americans Rejected Harris Campaign
December 8, 2024
Walz, Kamala Harris’ running mate, expressed surprise that America rejected their largely positive campaign messaging.
In his first public comments since the Democratic Party lost the presidental election, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate Tim Walz expressed surprise that Americans did not respond better to the largely positive message of the Democratic ticket.
According to The New York Times, Walz told KSTP-TV in Minneapolis that he expected a better response than he and Harris received at the ballot box in November.
“It felt like at the rallies, at the things I was going to, the shops I was going in, that the momentum was going our way, and it obviously wasn’t at the end,” Walz said. “So yeah, I was a little surprised. I thought we had a positive message, and I thought the country was ready for that.”
Walz’s frank admission contrasts sharply with some senior members of the campaign, including David Plouffe, a senior advisor, who said on a recent episode of “Pod Save America,” that he expected for the Democrats to lose the election.
“The political atmosphere, the desire for change, all those fundamentals that you’ve spent a lot of time talking about really presented huge challenges for us,” Plouffe explained on the podcast.
Osita Nwanevu, a contributor for The New Republic and author of the upcoming book The Right of the People, argued in an interview with Vox that institutional factors also contributed to the Democratic Party’s loss, particularly their delay in pivoting away from President Joe Biden.
“But I think the one thing you can indict Democrats for in general in this election more than anything else, even more than the particular messaging decisions they made over the course of this campaign, was how long it took for them to realize that Joe Biden was not going to be a viable candidate. That’s the original sin of this election,” Nwanevu said.
Walz, in his comments, also noted that the idea of Trump becoming a champion of the middle class seems to be at odds with his economic policy, particularly his tax and tariff policies. He also questioned if the Democratic message was the right one.
“To have Donald Trump seen as a champion of the middle class, I fully don’t see how that would happen, but I recognize that’s where people voted,” Walz told WCCO-TV. “I think we have to both decide, is the message the right one?”
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