Walz makes first official appearance in Minnesota since joining presidential ticket

Gov. Tim Walz stepped off the campaign trail briefly Wednesday for his first official gubernatorial appearance since joining the national ticket in early August, speaking to volunteers packing meals at Roy Wilkins Auditorium in St. Paul.

The DFL governor focused on the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and didn’t mention Tuesday night’s debate or the campaign. He called 9/11 a “defining moment of horror” remembered by those who lived through it.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Walz said, he was in a classroom at Mankato West High School with his students, watching young faces “trying to comprehend the horror that was in front of them.”

Walz was at Roy Wilkins on Wednesday to introduce Cindy McGinty, whose husband, Mike McGinty, died in the World Trade Center attacks. He praised the volunteers for coming together to turn a day of tragedy into something hopeful.

“I’m always so surprised when someone is able to turn a moment of grief into service,” he said.

The governor recalled how in Mankato, he saw U.S. flags being flown on streets where he had not seen them before and noticed people who didn’t normally talk speaking to each other.

“It’s in the time of need we become our very best,” Walz said. “It’s in the time of trauma that we rise to the occasion.”

He called post-9/11 “a moment of unity around shared values. A moment of unity that we’re all in this together.”

McGinty asked the volunteers to pack a little extra love with some 250,000 meals being assembled. The governor joined the volunteers in packing meals under heavy security and was not expected to take questions from the media.

Walz’s stop came after a multiday campaign swing. He was in Phoenix on Tuesday night, where he watched Vice President Kamala Harris debate Republican nominee Donald Trump.

In addition to the brief St. Paul appearance, Walz stopped at the Minnesota State Fair last week, but that was a tightly controlled and heavily secured campaign visit that lasted just over half an hour.

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan also spoke at the Roy Wilkins event, calling it a moment of healing and service. “I can’t think of a better way to spend the day,” she said.

Volunteers from AmeriCorps and other organizations worked in two-hour shifts throughout the day to pack meals for food shelves across the state.