Gov. Tim Walz, in an interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune in his office at the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Five weeks after losing a national election, Gov. Tim Walz is keeping his options open both in Minnesota and nationally, gearing up for the 2025 legislative session and trying to understand why the ticket he joined with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris didn’t win over enough voters.

“Somehow we decided that electing a billionaire who screwed the middle class his entire life was better for the middle class,” Walz said in an interview, referring to the Harris-Walz ticket’s loss to President-elect Donald Trump. “Who knew making housing affordable was not as strong a message as: ‘They’re eating dogs and they’re eating cats.’ ”

On the prospect of another national run, Walz said, “It would be too early to say that. I do want to be part of the conversation, because I think we are delivering, I think we are making a difference in people’s lives.”

Walz is still trying to figure out how the party failed to better connect with working-class voters, whether it was a policy or messaging failure. “I would argue, if you ask people, ‘Would you like to see better education and more money in the pockets of the middle class, or would you like to see Elon Musk get richer?’ I think that election would probably swing heavily to, ‘We’d like to help the middle class.’”

Walz acknowledged that Democrats have to figure it out. “I think the Democratic Party lost that message to the middle class,” Walz said. “I don’t think we focused on that, that bread and butter piece.”

In every speech during his vice presidential run, Walz said he touched on how labor unions created safe working conditions, fair wages, a 40-hour work week and the ability to afford a home. “For whatever reason, that doesn’t seem to be what people identify as a core of the party,” Walz said. “I’d like to spend the time, you know, being that voice and continuing to fight for” the message that the party wants to make life easier for the middle class.

He sounded exasperated when he talked about Trump backtracking on campaign promises, as the Republican is now acknowledging the tariffs on imports he promised could lead to price increases and that the United States may have to go to war with Iran.

“For whatever reason, people were going to vote for Trump,” Walz said. “They didn’t believe us. They thought we were elite. [Republicans] were masterful at dragging us down on some of those things.”

Walz said the goals of the middle class remain the same: Safety, earning more, having health care and good public schools. “Obviously, Donald Trump probably knows that they want that, too,” he said. “He didn’t message a damn thing about that, and I don’t believe he’s going to deliver on it.”

The governor said he’s focused on the upcoming legislative session and he’s holding open the prospect of a run for an unprecedented third, four-year term as governor in 2026.

In coping with an incoming Trump administration, Walz said it will be a combination of fighting back and working with the president provided it doesn’t “compromise our values.”

He noted that the GOP makes the case that states’ rights matter, and “we’re going to protect our states’ rights as much as we can,” he said. Walz said he worked with the Trump administration during COVID-19, but he recognized that Trump has expressed a desire to be vindictive.

“I think we can expect that certain states will get hit harder than others,” Walz said. “My job will be here to make sure that none of that impacts negatively to people in Minnesota.”

In other ways, he said Minnesota will be sheltered. “I’m not going to put women’s lives at risk when they need basic health care,” Walz said. “We’ll make the case that no matter what he thinks, he’s not a dictator. He needs to follow the law, and he needs to work with states.”

His team already is looking into the possibility of dealing with selective federal funding cuts targeting Minnesota. He also openly wondered how voters will react as Trump’s policies play out.

People “voted for it and they want mass deportations. I think now that’s going to become a little more realistic when federal agents come into your church during Mass, stop Mass and arrest the person sitting next to you worshiping, or they’re there when the child’s being dropped off at school, and they arrest the parents, and then we’ll have to figure out where the kids go after school.”

After the legislative session, Walz said he expects to start thinking about 2026. Asked if he might step aside because other DFLers could be eager to run, Walz responded, “you could always have a primary.”

He argued that life has improved in Minnesota under his tenure while Trump rescinded a basic American trait to not be cruel and voters endorsed that. “So I think for us as being a voice of more reason, maybe a little more kindness, a little more trying to find real solutions,” he said.