“He is sort of all things to all people in the best way possible,” he says.
In part, this is why Walz is one of just six politicians who has reportedly met with Harris’s team as she sets to choose a running mate. He can be whatever he needs to be. He is a relatively young politician (60) who looks old (“You don’t leave that job with a full head of hair,” he once tweeted about supervising lunch rooms for 20 years). His agenda in Minnesota includes tuition-free college and universal school meals, but he’s also a former U.S. Army noncommissioned officer who can pull off a camo hat at a news conference. And, he’s the teacher given the “Most Inspiring” superlative in the Mankato yearbook, who can effectively deliver an attack on his Republican opponents.
“When he said Republicans were ‘weird’ it struck me like, this works from Walz,” says Jake Jagdfeld, who played linebacker under Walz in the late ’90s. “In politics he’s good at calling out B.S. without getting nasty or too down in the dirt. He’s just saying, ‘That’s weird’ and everyone gets that. It’s the kind of common sense he showed as a coach: practical and kinda goofy.”
Maybe Harris will pick him, maybe as soon as Saturday. Maybe she’ll pick someone else. Walz is unlikely to stop pointing out the weirdness of Republicans he finds weird, such as vice-presidential nominee JD Vance, who apparently is also a Diet Mountain Dew drinker, but nevertheless:
“I don’t know where I end up in this,” Walz said, wrapping up his speech Tuesday at the brewery. “But I can tell you that for the next 98 days, I’m going to be on him like nobody’s business.”