Press Watch -Reporters who’ve been covering Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for years say he’s pretty much what he appears to be: plain spoken and happy to answer questions. “Tim Walz is just kind o a salt-of-the earth midwestern guy and he won’t put on airs,” said Bill Salisbury, a retired longtime state-capitol reporter for the St. Paul Pioneer Press.Walz, who presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris selected as her running mate on Tuesday, has been governor since 2019.
“He was not hostile toward us at all,” Salisbury said of Walz’s relations with the press corps. “He’ll take questions and he’ll think about the answers that he gives.” Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter Rochelle Anne Olson wrote on Tuesday that “In debates, interviews and news conferences, he appears comfortable speaking extemporaneously and from the heart without notes.” But, she added, “he can also provide meandering responses that change direction and amount to word salad.” Brian Bakst, the political editor of Minnesota Public radio, agreed. “He’s generally been pretty affable with us, pretty accessible,” Bakst said. “Sometimes you have to comb through some confusing sentences, but he doesn’t shy from questions.”
“I think he genuinely likes people, so that’s helpful,” said Patrick Coolican, editor in chief of the Minnesota Reformer. “He’s an old high school social studies teacher so he’s kind of nerdy about government and elections and the First Amendment and the role of the free press. That’s the underlying current.”Coolican added: “He’s not one of these types who spent his whole life preparing for this moment. He had a whole life before politics. And I think it’s huge advantage, how you deal with people when you’re kind of grounded that way.”
Huffington Post - Like most mainstream Democrats, Walz has generally been supportive of Israel throughout his political career. As a congressman, he voted in favor of sending billions in unconditional U.S. military aid to Israel, and voted on a resolution that condemned the United Nations for deciding that Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal... Walz has also attended conferences held by AIPAC, a wildly influential lobbying group that gives large sums of money to help elect pro-Israel candidates in the U.S. to political office. The governor also once described Israel as a country “with a commitment to values of personal freedoms and liberties, surrounded by a pretty tough neighborhood,” according to Mark Mellman, chair of the Democratic Majority for Israel PAC, in its endorsement for Walz.
Despite those stances, however, many pro-Palestinian voters are cautiously excited about the prospect of Walz becoming vice president. The governor walked the line during this year’s nationwide anti-war student protests in response to Israel’s offensive, supporting the creation of a space “where political dissent or political rallying can happen” while denouncing any acts of intimidation against Jewish or Muslim students.
Most notably, Walz expressed empathy and understanding when about 20% of Minnesota’s Democratic voters cast their primary ballots earlier this year for “uncommitted,” a movement where Americans showed their opposition to the Biden administration’s Gaza policy by engaging in a protest vote. The nationwide movement ― which was most concentrated in Michigan and Minnesota ― resulted in 30 “uncommitted” delegates for this month’s DNC.
Ballot Access - The presumptive Democratic Party nominee for vice-president, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, has a record of hostility toward minor parties and the voters who want to vote for minor parties. On May 23, 2023, he signed HF 1830. It altered the Minnesota definition of a qualified party from a group that polled 5% at either of the last elections, to one that polled 8% at either of the last two elections. That made Minnesota the fifth-most difficult state in the nation for a minor party to retain its spot on the ballot. The only states with a worse vote test for party status are Alabama (20%), Virginia (10%), and New Jersey (10%). Also Pennsylvania’s registration test of 15% is worse than any other state’s test.
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