Gov. Tim Walz returns to the Minnesota State Fair for the first time as vice presidential nominee

Arriving at the Minnesota State Fair Sunday morning, Gov. Tim Walz made a beeline for the pork-chop-on-a-stick stand.

Meandering wasn’t an option.

Walz’s return to the Great Minnesota Get-Together, the first since joining Kamala Harris’ ticket as vice presidential nominee, was a tightly controlled 30-minute affair, complete with metal barricades, security dogs and Secret Service agents patrolling the grounds and perched on rooftops.

“I don’t get 12 days, which I normally get,” Walz said of his State Fair experience since he’s been thrust into the national spotlight. “It’s a little bit more of a disruption … but it’s exciting. I think people are seeing we’re getting to talk about Minnesota across the country.”

In a short time-frame, Walz still managed to squeeze in several quintessential fair stops, including a tour through the Dairy Building, where swarms of people held out their phones to try and snap a photo or selfie with the governor.

Buzz spread around the fairgrounds early in the morning that Walz might make his return on Sunday.

“We were going to come in and get a malt and we could see all the security and we just said, ‘It’s probably Walz.’ So we thought, ‘Perfect, we’ll go inside,’ ” said Nathan Laible, who lives in Golden Valley and snapped a few shots of the governor walking through the building. “We did not get the malt, but we did get something better.”

Walz, followed by a line of staff and security, handed out soft-serve ice cream cones to fairgoers with his wife, Gwen, and daughter Hope. Afterward, he chatted with Rachel Visser, a 19-year-old college student from Hutchinson, this year’s Princess Kay of the Milky Way. She showed him her likeness carved into butter in a see-through refrigerator.

He declared Minnesota’s fair the greatest in the country and said “agriculture is still king in Minnesota.”

“We see that many of these folks are going to participate in agribusiness over their lifetime,” Walz said, wearing a “Minnesota Grown” hat and T-shirt and holding a melting vanilla shake in his hand. He shook hands and posed for selfies along a roped-off section of the building, making a pit stop to buy a koozie with a fishing reel attached to it before leaving the fairgrounds.

It was a friendly but chaotic return to the fair for Walz, who last year wandered freely throughout the grounds, trying new state fair foods and talking to constituents with minimal staff and security. Everything changed 26 days ago when he was named Harris’ running mate.

He’s been campaigning almost nonstop in battleground states across the country, attending political conventions and fundraisers and addressing rallies of thousands alongside Harris.

The Minnesota State Fair became part of the push for Walz on social media as he was being considered for the vice president nomination, a perfect locale to showcase his Midwestern, regular-guy appeal. Supporters posted videos of him with his daughter on the fair’s slingshot ride, Walz cradling a newborn piglet in his arms at the Miracle of Birth Center and claiming turkey isn’t meat in Minnesota, saying it’s “special.”

Many people who flocked to the dairy building were wearing Harris-Walz pins, hats and T-shirts, but there were detractors, too. Two people carried “Never Walz” fans, which are being handed out at the conservative group Action 4 Liberty’s booth this year. One person passed by the line of people waiting to meet the governor and said they “couldn’t care less.”

Politicians typically attend the fair to woo voters from across the state, and Walz is far from the first candidate on a presidential ticket to make the trip. Most recently, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders stopped at the fairgrounds in 2019, and it’s where Theodore Roosevelt famously said: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”

But as the hometown candidate, Walz needed no introduction. Some supporters chanted “Walz, Walz, Walz” as he handed out cones.

Wesley Poland and his son Vincent drove to the fair from Blaine on Sunday and caught a glimpse of Walz as he greeted people. Wesley said he’s been a fan of the governor for years but watching him on the national stage has shown a “side of him that you’ve never seen before.”

Vincent is voting in his first presidential election this year and has decided to support the Democratic ticket. To get a chance to see any national candidate at the fair was a big deal.

“He’s a vice presidential candidate,” Vincent said. “It’s exciting no matter what your views are.”

Walz, who answered only a few questions from reporters, said he’s leaned on his team to help manage his schedule and balance his governor duties with the demands of the campaign trail. The visit to the fair is one of the few times he’s returned to Minnesota over the last several weeks.

He’s visiting with labor leaders in St. Paul on Monday before heading back to Wisconsin to address the Milwaukee Area Labor Council’s Laborfest.