Blumenthal (right): VP pick Walz is the real deal.
“A straight-talking, plain-spoken Midwesterner [who] has every-day American values.”
That’s how U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal described Tim Walz on Tuesday morning as he welcomed the current Minnesota governor, and Blumenthal’s former Veterans’ Affairs Committee congressional colleague, as Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s new running mate.
Blumenthal offered those words of support at the end of an unrelated, traffic-safety press conference outside police headquarters.
He spoke in support of Walz less than an hour after Harris announced her campaign’s pick of Walz as her ticket’s candidate for vice president.
“It is one of the most exciting political developments in recent history,” Blumenthal said.
Walz, who is currently the chair of the Democratic Governors Association, has skyrocketed to national attention and Democratic Party endearment in recent weeks as a host of vice presidential contenders have hit the political talk shows to stump for Harris — and audition for the second-in-command role. His framing of the Donald Trump-JD Vance ticket as “weird” has also caught fire as a new way for Democrats to criticize the national Republican Party leaders without jumping straight to existential concerns about the fate of democracy.
Blumenthal said he worked with Walz when both served on the Veteran Affairs’ Committee, when Walz was in the House of Representatives.
“He speaks his mind and he shows his heart,” Blumenthal said. “He is tireless. His work ethic is second to none. He really epitomizes what is great about America.”
Asked what lessons the national Democratic Party should learn from Walz’s accomplished tenure as Minnesota governor — where he has overseen the adoption of paid family and medical leave and has presided over the most progressive tax system of any state in the country — Blumenthal praised Walz for putting “his heart and soul into education and healthcare in the State of Minnesota. I think that will be a priority for this new administration.”