Minnesota DNC delegates at the center of excitement over Walz and Flanagan

CHICAGO – Minnesota political pride and perhaps momentum were served up with egg and sausage burritos and yogurt parfaits on the first day of the Democratic National Convention, where state delegates find themselves in the center of the swirl of excitement around Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.

“This is a moment when we can expect a real sea change in the trajectory of our entire country, because we are going to get to share what we do and why we have the highest voter turnout in the country year after year after year,” Attorney General Keith Ellison told more than 200 Democrats and activists over breakfast.

It’s been just two weeks since Walz joined Vice President Kamala Harris on the national ticket after President Joe BIden stepped down, and the smiling faces at the Minnesota breakfast told the tale of how the campaign requirements for delegates have shifted from dutiful support for Biden to energetic enthusiasm about a historic election in which a Minnesotan could be second-in-command to the first woman president.

Flanagan said in an interview she’s misty-eyed seeing Walz, her friend of 20 years, enjoy the spotlight.

“When you’re the second in command, your job is to be ready, and so often it’s ready for something really tragic and awful,” Flanagan said. “So to be in this moment that is so hopeful and joyful, it’s a very, very different perspective to have but it’s also just so fun to watch him have such a good time on the campaign trail.”

Flanagan is one of four DNC co-chairs, who will gavel the event open and closed every evening. She’s up first Monday at the center of the action. Her own schedule was packed with caucus sessions and fundraisers. “I’m excited to be the hype squad for Minnesota and of course for Gov. Walz,” she said.

Latonya Reeves, a delegate from Minneapolis, said she initially grieved Biden’s departure, but she’s bouncing with enthusiasm now about how Harris has seized the moment.

“She kicked the door down and went right through it,” said Reeves, a delegate who is attending the event with community members from Black Political Action - MN.

“We’re amped up,” Reeves said. “We really are going to do it. This is history.”

Isaac Winkler, Minnesota’s youngest delegate, turning 18 in November just days before the election, was similarly enthused about Harris and Walz representing the next generation of voters. He wasn’t able to vote in the primary, but is preparing for a future of political action.

“Politics is the right way to make a difference,” he said.

Larry Redmond, a lobbyist and activist, has been around longer than Winkler; he worked for the late Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and has seen Minnesota in the spotlight before.

“It makes people proud,” Redmond said. “Even if you’re not voting for him, you’re still proud that Minnesota produces national leaders.”

Among those leaders is Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who ran for president herself four years ago against Harris. She has since become friends with Harris and is a longtime fan of Walz. She came to the Minnesota breakfast after speaking to both the New York and Ohio delegations.

“I brought them greetings from our state,” she said, adding that she also told them, “We’re a state where the women are strong, where the men are good-looking and where all the vice presidents are above average, being the state of Humphrey, [former Vice President Walter] Mondale and now Walz.”

She alluded to the speed at which the campaign has turned from Biden to Harris and Walz — 28 days — and contrary to doomsday predictions, the turnaround was swift.

“Kamala Harris unites our party in literally two days,” Klobuchar said.

She said Harris and the country are now getting a good look at Walz. “She must have seen this in him when she was interviewing these outstanding candidates that he is really good at working with strong women,” she said, citing First Lady Gwen Walz, Flanagan, fellow U.S. Sen. Tina Smith and herself.

“I am incredibly excited for what we’re going to see this week,” Klobuchar said. “We’re going to see a lot of Minnesotans on that stage.”

She said the party has “found that light in the never-ending shade. So let’s take it through this week.”

As Democrats rallied around their new ticket, the campaign of former President Donald Trump urged voters to remember there’s “no daylight” between Harris and Biden.

“Kamala Harris is running for four more years of Joe Biden’s failed policies that have left Americans poorer and less safe. They broke the economy, our border, and the world together,” his campaign said in a written statement.

Trump cited the tie-breaking vote of Harris on the American Rescue Plan that was “dishonestly named the Inflation Reduction Act.”

The Trump campaign also pointed out that Harris supported Biden’s “failed border policies” and failed to remove 99.7% of the undocumented immigrants in the United States.

Back with the Minnesota delegation, Ellison also told personal stories about Walz and Harris. The governor called him the morning after George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer.

“He was as shocked, as touched and needing to do something just and fair and right as I was,” Ellison said. A few days later, Walz asked Ellison to prosecute the case against then-MPD officer Derek Chauvin. A year later when a Hennepin County District Court jury convicted Chauvin of murder, Harris called Ellison to thank him and his team.

“So in my mind and in my heart, we got two people on the top of the ticket who care about the rule of law, care about justice,” he said. “It was just one phone call, one person to another and they were earnestly concerned about the Floyd family and everybody in our community.”

Ellison said many people are asking him lately who Walz is. “You can throw whatever label you want, but I’m telling you, this man believes in helping people make their lives better,” Ellison said.

While the Harris-Walz energy is great from Ellison’s perspective, “all of that only matters if we help people see that we’ve got to include more people in the promise of the country, right?” he said. “I mean, we can be happy now, but I’d love to be happy on November 5th, right around 10 o’clock at night. So that’s what it’s all about.”