One heartbeat away from making Kamala Harris’ search for a running mate all about Minnesota

Vice presidents have always been one of Minnesota’s top exports.

Hubert Humphrey. Walter Mondale. End of list.

This is our moment. We are one heartbeat away from making Kamala Harris’ search for a running mate all about Minnesota.

Vice President Harris has a short time to choose her own vice president before the Democratic National Convention in August and a short list of potential vice presidents that might, just might, include Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

In an interview with MPR, Walz joked that adding him to the ticket would be a “testament to Minnesota. We are the land of vice presidents.”

“[Harris] mentioned she would need my help. And I said she has it in any way that she sees fit,” Walz said during a Monday interview with Cathy Wurzer on Minnesota Now.

With magnificent Minnesotan understatement, he added: “If that’s the direction she goes, I guess that’s fine.”

Harris’ challenger, former president and current felon Donald Trump, was — to put it mildly — unhappy to see Walz’s face on Fox News on Tuesday morning. Joe Biden’s advancing age and declining health had prompted Beltway oddsmakers to move Minnesota from the “likely Democratic win” category to “lean Democratic.” But when Biden bowed out of the race over the weekend, all those polls went out the window.

“Why did Fox News put up Tim Walz, Governor of Minnesota, where I am leading?” Trump posted on his social media site Tuesday. “They are making me fight battles that I shouldn’t have to fight!”

Trump lost Minnesota in 2016. Trump lost Minnesota in 2020. Now, as we’ve seen, anything is possible in 2024. But it’s unlikely that Minnesotans will be won over by a candidate who complains about having to exert any effort whatsoever to win Minnesota.

So Trump and his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance , are heading our way to make their case. If they flipped Minnesota, it would be the first time a Republican carried the state since Nixon in 1972.

If nothing else, this could add an interesting twist to Trump’s stump speech. We look forward to hearing whether he would rather fight a shark, a battery or the great state of Minnesota.