Gov. Tim Walz delivered his first public remarks Friday since returning to Minnesota from the presidential campaign trail, attempting to strike a unifying tone after watching his trifecta fall in Tuesday’s elections.
“I don’t know how about you, but I’ve had a week,” Walz told a small crowd of friends and supporters gathered at Eagan High School.
Just three months ago, Walz was selected as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, but his national ambitions came crashing down Tuesday when the Democratic ticket suffered a resounding defeat at the hands of former President Donald Trump, who will return to the White House with control of the U.S. Senate and likely the U.S. House as well.
Additionally, Walz’s trifecta—control of the state House, Senate, and governorship—was toppled by Republicans who now have an equal number of members in the lower chamber.
“If you’re feeling deflated, discouraged today, I get it,” Walz said. “Get back in this fight when you’re ready. And know that when you’re ready to get back in that fight, I’ll be standing right here ready to fight that fight with you.
“Everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve had the opportunity to tell people how things work here in Minnesota. The truth is: the way we do things here sounded pretty damn good to Americans across this country.”
On the campaign trail, Walz faced intense scrutiny for misrepresenting his record and infamously described himself as a “knucklehead” during a debate with Vice President-elect JD Vance. Towards the end of the campaign, he was widely criticized for comparing a Trump rally to a Nazi rally.
During Friday’s speech, Walz rattled off a list of the trifecta’s accomplishments while taking some apparent backhanded jabs at his former opponents.
“I know there are a lot of folks that are worried about the next four years and what they’re going to look like. I’m one of them,” he said. “We’ve already seen the damage a president can cause when he’s in it for himself. Look, we know what’s coming down the pike. We know it because they told us.
“The moment they try and bring a hateful agenda into this state, I’m going to stand ready to stand up and fight for the way we do things here,” he said.
The two-term governor, who hasn’t said yet whether he will seek a third term in 2026, concluded his remarks by vowing to “listen to folks who don’t support me or my policies.”
“I will say and acknowledge this, about 1.5 million of our fellow Minnesotans voted for the other side in this election. While there might not be a place in our state for the most extreme elements of that agenda, there should be a place in our politics for everyone to be heard,” he said.
The governor continued:
I think sometimes we can be quick to judge people who don’t agree with us, to assume that they act out of cruelty or fear or self-interest. I don’t think that kind of judgment is helpful right now and I don’t think it’s right.
I think we ought to swallow, and this is me in this as I’m speaking about myself, swallow a little bit of pride and look a little harder to find common ground with our neighbors who didn’t vote like we did in this election.
Maybe we won’t agree on every issue. Hell, maybe we won’t agree on any issue. But maybe, when the campaign signs come down, we all get a little break from the rhetoric and the TV ads, and the fundraising texts, and I’m sorry about those, maybe when we get a little break from this campaign that we’re in, we’ll be able to look at each other and see not enemies, but neighbors. Maybe we’ll be able to sit down over a coffee or a diet Mountain Dew and just talk…
For my part, I’m going to try even harder to do that as governor. Nobody—not the DFLers, not Republicans—nobody has a monopoly on good intentions or good ideas. Now that this election is behind us, I’m going to try even harder to keep an open mind, an open heart, and really listen to folks who don’t support me or my policies, to work with everyone in the legislature to seek compromise and common ground because that’s how we come back together after such a long time spent fighting each other…
I love this country, I love this state and I love this job, and I’m not done fighting for Minnesota, not by a long shot.”
Walz didn’t take any questions from Minnesota reporters during Friday’s event and apparently hasn’t done so since Aug. 1.
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
