Why Trump's Plan to Brand Walz as Too Liberal Will Fail

Good luck turning the gun-owning, football coach into a member of the Squad.

For the second time this month, Republicans were absolutely flummoxed by an entirely predictable outcome. First, they had no plan or message for Kamala Harris when she became the presumptive Democratic nominee — even though that was by far the most likely scenario were Biden to step aside. Now, they are confused about how to run against Tim Walz. Once again, they should have seen this coming. Walz was not one of the early favorites, but he was well known as one of the finalists. Heck, the headline on Monday’s Politico Playbook was “Is Walzmentum Real?”

Perhaps Donald Trump’s honchos should spend more time working on the campaign and less time doing interviews relaying how smart they think they are.

After spending 12 hours grasping around for a message, the GOP and its sycophants in the MAGA media stumbled upon one. According to Politico:

Republicans’ insta-reaction yesterday to VP KAMALA HARRIS’ choice of Minnesota Gov. TIM WALZ as her running mate was immediate and genuine: They were positively giddy about not having to take on Pennsylvania Gov. JOSH SHAPIRO, the popular leader of the most important state on the electoral map.

“She went with the left-wing pick,” one GOP operative told us, calling it the outcome Republicans were “quietly rooting for.” Sen. STEVE DAINES (R-Mont.), charged with electing GOP senators in swing states across the country as NRSC chair, was even more succinct: “Thanks Kamala.”

So, the plan is to brand Tim Walz as a radical lefty, spinning the false yarn that Harris passed over Josh Shapiro and Mark Kelly to appease Bernie Sanders and AOC. This reeks of desperation. A strategy that depends on making Tim Walz look out-of-touch by mainstream American values is one that is unlikely to succeed.

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Identity Trumps Ideology

Policy is important. It tells us a lot about the values of the candidates. It’s how we know what someone will do (or at least try to do) if elected. But most people don’t vote on policy. They don’t read the white papers or follow the news closely enough to talk with specificity about a candidate’s agenda. Even if Tim Walz had a radical agenda (which he doesn’t), it would be very hard to brand him as too liberal.

When it comes to politics, identity > ideology, Tim Walz is a veteran, gun-owning football coach from rural Minnesota. He doesn’t code as an extreme liberal. The guy screams American values. He exudes decency and common sense. Everyone knows a Tim Walz. Maybe he was their coach or teacher. Maybe he was their neighbor or the guy they ran into at the hardware store.

For a political attack to work, it has to be believable, and there is nothing believable about Tim Walz being a dangerous extremist.

Walz’s Agenda is Popular

Tim Walz is a progressive — and a proud one. In a term and a half as Governor of Minnesota, Walz has ranked a series of legislative wins that represent a progressive, populist wish list. He is one of the most successful governors in the country. The Republicans want to use these progressive wins to argue that he is Bernie Sanders with a Minnesota accent. But progressive doesn’t mean unpopular. Check out these poll numbers:

• Walz signed into law 20 weeks of paid family and medical leave — a policy supported by 80% of Americans and 70% of Republicans, according to a poll from Navigator Research.

• Thanks Walz; students from families earning less than $80,000 can attend college tuition-free. A Pew Research poll found that 63% of the public supports tuition-free college.

• Earlier this year, Walz signed a bill banning junk fees. Nearly 80% of voters support state laws banning junk fees, according to a poll from the Economic Liberties Project.

• Last year, Walz signed a law guaranteeing free breakfast and lunch for all Minnesota students. A 2019 YouGov poll found that 63% of the public supported free lunch (only MAGA Republicans could support starving kids).

• Walz legalized marijuana, a policy supported by 2/3rds of Americans according to a Data for Progress poll.

These policies are all broadly popular (including with sizable swaths of Republican voters). Republicans think that anyone to the left of Donald Trump is an out-of-touch liberal, but that’s not how the public sees it, and that’s certainly not how they will see Walz.

The GOP focused on a critique of Walz’s response to the 2020 protests over the killing of George Floyd. Using this as an example to show that he is in the thrall of liberal activists, but less than a day into this attack, they ran into a stumbling block.

Yesterday, the Harris-Walz campaign released a video of Trump praising Walz for his handling of the protests.

Oops.

More Work to Do

Republican efforts to demonize Walz are unlikely to succeed, but we’ve been surprised before. Everyone reading this immediately became Walz-pilled. We have read about his record. We saw the charming videos of him and his daughter at the state fair, and the testimonials from his students and players. Most of the country still knows nothing about Walz. In an NPR/Marist poll released on Tuesday night as the announcement was made, 71% of voters don’t know enough about Walz to render an opinion. That number decreased since the announcement, but it's safe to assume that persuadable voters are the ones who know the least about Walz.

So, be aggressive. Keep sharing those charming TikToks of Walz, but also include this video from the signing ceremony for the law guaranteeing free lunch and breakfast for students.

The Republicans can only succeed if we let them.