MINNEAPOLIS – At a speaking engagement in Minneapolis, Minnesota DFL gubernatorial candidate and U.S. Rep. Tim Walz took a shot at outstate Minnesota calling it “mostly rocks and cows.”
In a video posted online by Youtube user “DemGovsClips,” Walz can be heard describing an election map of Minnesota. Walz references “all that red across there,” presumably referring to outstate Minnesota, calling the Republican-leaning area “mostly rocks and cows.”
“You see those maps,” Walz can be heard saying in the video. “Red and blue and there’s all that red across there. And Democrats go into a depression over it. It’s mostly rocks and cows that are in that red area.”
Walz’s comments received quick condemnation from some Republicans. Fellow gubernatorial candidate and State Rep. Matt Dean (R-Dellwood) challenged Walz to “get out of D.C. and visit a dairy farm.”
“Rocks & Cows? I’d say Cows Rock! Dairy is an important industry in greater MN. Tim Walz should get out of D.C. and visit a dairy farm,” Dean wrote on Facebook. “We’ve had seven years of greater Minnesota being treated like lesser Minnesota. Things are going to change and we make a greater Minnesota for everyone.”
Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson, who is also running for governor, called Walz’s comments “arrogant and ignorant.”
“As someone whose roots, family and values are all in Northwestern Minnesota, I find that statement both arrogant and ignorant,” Johnson wrote on Facebook. “Yes, there are lots of rocks and lots of cows in parts of Greater MN, but more importantly there are lots of decent, hard-working, patriotic Americans.”
Walz’s comments come as the gubernatorial candidate seeks to further distance himself from past conservative efforts on his part by recanting previous support for the National Rifle Association and announcing Minnesota State Rep. Peggy Flanagan (D-St. Louis Park), a staunch liberal, as his running mate.
Watch the video below:
