WASHINGTON – Tim Walz, the soldier turned geography teacher turned unlikely congressman, is trying to chart a course to Minnesota's governorship across the state's fractured political map.
"I loathe the idea that people have found a way to wedge us, especially on geographic differences — outstate vs. metro," said the DFLer from Mankato.
Now mounting his first statewide bid, Walz is a kind of endangered political species: the rural Democrat. He was re-elected to Congress only narrowly last year, as President Donald Trump carried every county but one in Walz's home turf of southern Minnesota's First Congressional District.
Minnesota Democrats who watched, aghast, as Republican red engulfed most of the state's electoral map last November are looking for candidates who can win rural voters back to the fold. Walz, an affable former high school teacher and coach with a reputation for building bipartisan relationships in Congress, offers the party a tantalizing shot at putting the "farmer" back in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.
But first, Walz, 53, needs to build support among DFLers in the Twin Cities, where the party draws much of its strength and where activists have less personal experience with him than others in the party's crowded field for governor. And Republicans have already started sharpening their attacks, claiming Walz is just another Washington insider these days.
Walz "never once voted to fix Obamacare on any of the dozens of occasions he could have done so," read a news release last week from the Republican Governors Association (RGA), highlighting critical remarks Walz made recently about the Affordable Care Act, which he voted for.
That a national Republican group would single out Walz now suggests the other side views him as formidable. Walz's repeated success in a swing district and access to national donors as a sitting congressman have propelled him to the front of DFL ranks; U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison, highly popular with progressive activists, predicted in April that Walz would be the party's nominee to replace the retiring Gov. Mark Dayton.
The DFL's 2018 field is still unsettled, and activists won't confer a party endorsement for 11 months. But candidates including Walz are already busy wooing activists, trying to build name recognition at parades and personal appearances, and lining up financial support.