Minnesota’s Democrats are seeing an influx of new volunteers and cash following the announcement that Vice President Kamala Harris will run for president this year.
The DFL raised over $200,000 in the two days after Harris threw her hat in the ring when President Joe Biden withdrew from the race earlier this month. The Harris campaign raised $126 million nationally in three days.
The increased cash was also accompanied by a record-breaking 600 new volunteers, something that is directly tied to Harris’ name on the ticket, according to DFL Chair Ken Martin.
“The energy not only is palpable, it’s just off the charts,” Martin said.
The fresh batch of volunteers is largely comprised of people new to campaigning who want to elect the first woman president, Martin said.
“With just 100 days left (until the election), it’s just a remarkable difference, to be honest with you, on where we were just a week ago,” he said.
The excitement Democrats have over Harris as their nominee is especially intensified in Minnesota, where speculation over Gov. Tim Walz as a potential vice presidential candidate has been the talk of the town.
While Walz has largely acted as a surrogate for a Harris presidency run, he did tell Minnesota Public Radio News that he is open to the idea of being her running mate.
However, a spokesperson for the Walz administration said that his focus is on his current job.
“The governor is excited that Minnesota is receiving national attention for passing a historic legislative agenda. While he plans to do everything he can to defeat Donald Trump in November, he remains focused on his job as governor,” the spokesperson said.
Walz has garnered some support for a potential run as vice president, most notably from U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, who endorsed him on the social media site X on Wednesday.
A Harris-Walz ticket would draw a good comparison to the Republican ticket, Martin said, adding that this year is an existential election and Harris represents “the future of not only the Democratic Party, but the future of America.”
Former President Donald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, became the Republican nominees just before Biden decided to drop out of the race.
While the Harris campaign has requested vetting material from Walz, they have also asked for material from several other possible picks who either have a higher national presence, like Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, or from governors in states considered more at risk to flip Republican, like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
At this point, who Harris will pick to join her ticket is speculation, but Democrats are likely to hold a virtual call to select a presidential nominee next week, which would likely follow with an endorsement for vice president.
The fact that polls in Minnesota have shown a tight race means that Harris will have to find a way to shore up those votes in a state that has not voted for a Republican since 1972, says Paul Gazelka, a longtime Republican legislator who was the Senate majority leader from 2017 to 2021.
“You have a lot of folks in Minnesota in the middle,” he said. “They’re just common folks that want their government to work and they don’t like extremes. Not extreme left, not extreme right.”
Some of the decisions Walz has made as governor, like how he handled the George Floyd uprising in 2020, or the millions of dollars in fraud with government programs under his watch, may be liabilities for him as a national candidate, Gazelka said.
“I would definitely be somebody to point out some of his weaknesses, but from Harris’ vantage point, I’m not so sure she would consider some of those (to be) weaknesses,” he said.
Martin listed marks in Walz’s favor as a VP running mate, including Walz’s prior military service and work as a teacher, coach, 12-year congressional member and two-term governor.
“Most importantly … is the fact that he has gotten a lot done for Minnesota in his time as governor, and I think he’s got a great record of success to share with the American people of how he’s governed the state,” Martin said.
Walz has received praise from supporters, both in the state and nationally, for more progressive legislation passed in the state, which includes free breakfast and lunches for school children and solidifying the right to an abortion in the state.
“I think (Walz) can talk about these things in a very folksy way in terms of his populist agenda,” Martin said.
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