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In 2018, Minnesota’s Tim Walz and Wisconsin’s Tony Evers were elected Governors. Both are Democrats. The two newly elected neighboring Governors inherited states each of which had a very different recent past. Tim Walz’s election followed eight years of Democrat Mark Dayton. Tony Evers’ election followed eight years of Republican Scott Walker.
Because the states are adjacent and so similar in other respects, comparisons are enticing. In 2018, the Economic Policy Institute created a report that began by noting Governor Walker’s “highly conservative agenda” – cutting taxes, shrinking government, and weakening unions. They contrasted that with Governor Dayton’s “progressive priorities”—raising the minimum wage, strengthening safety net programs and labor standards, increasing public investments in infrastructure and education financed by increasing taxes on the wealthy.
The report found that
- Job growth was markedly stronger in Minnesota
- Wages grew faster in Minnesota
- Gender wage gaps shrank more in Minnesota
- Median household income grew by a larger percent in Minnesota
- Overall poverty was reduced to a greater extent in Minnesota
- Minnesota residents were more likely to have health insurance
- Minnesota had stronger overall economic growth.
If the Economic Policy Institute’s conclusions are accurate, Governor Tim Walz had more to work with when he was elected in 2018 than Governor Evers had to work with that same year.
070322 Political Note #479 Tim Walz Governor Minnesota
2022 General Election
Tim Walz’s official biography begins: “[His] career has been defined by public service, from serving our country in the military to serving our students as a high-school teacher and football coach to serving our state in Congress. Born in a small town in rural Nebraska, Tim’s parents instilled in him the values that guide his commitment to common good and selfless service.”
A statement like that by most politicians is hard to take seriously. It might even be seen as diminishing. Few politicians speak about the “common good and selfless service” without invoking cynicism from critics and followers.
This statement is authentic Tim Walz. We don’t get politicians like that often. When we get them, we need to keep them. Let’s keep Tim Walz as governor.
Tim Walz may be Governor now, but he never seemed like one of those who clamber up the ladder. After graduating from Nebraska’s Butte High School at age 17, he joined the National Guard. He remained an enlisted man in the National Guard for 24 years. In 1989, at the age of 25 he was named the Nebraska Citizen-Soldier of the year. At the end of his career, he achieved the rank of Command Sargeant Major – the most senior enlisted officer within a command, spokesperson for all soldiers, and advisor on behalf of soldiers to the chief. Tim Walz retired from the military in 2005.
Tim Walz also went to college after he graduated from high school. He went to nearby Chadron State College. Formerly a school for training teachers, it was the only four year, regionally accredited college in the far western part of Nebraska where Tim Walz lived. Nebraska’s panhandle was bounded on the north by South Dakota, on the west by Wyoming, and the south by Colorado.
Tim Walz began his teaching career in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota just north of Chadron. After graduation, Tim Walz found WorldTeach, a Cambridge, Massachusetts based non-profit dedicated to international development and education whose founder, Michael Kremer, later won a Nobel Prize in economics. Through WorldTeach, Tim Walz taught for the 1989-1990 school year in the People’s Republic of China.
Tim Walz went home to Nebraska from China, served full time in the National Guard, and then returned to teaching where he met his wife. They married in 1994 and left for Mankato, Minnesota where Tim Walz studied educational leadership at Mankato State. Unlike his father, who had become a school administrator, Tim Walz settled in as a high school geography teacher and, briefly, a state championship football coach. His extra-curricular activity was international. He and his wife ran Educational Travel Adventures. They accompanied high school students on summer educational trips to China.
A lifetime was rolling out in front of them. Teach school. Raise children. Run a profitable and interesting summer project. They could have continued iuntil they retired. They were an hour and a half south west of Minneapolis, an hour and a half west of the great medical center of Rochester, MN, and an hour and a half north of the Iowa State line. They were ensconsed in Mankato, a city of 100,000 described by Schools.com as the second best small college town in the United States.
Tim Walz did not live that life. He was a Democrat in Mankato. Democrats in Mankato’s Congressional District were a minority. In 2006, he was the only Democrat interested in running for Congress. He surprised a complacent incumbent Republican and was elected. He served six terms in Congress working on farm bills, on ensuring the completion and successful operation of the regional water system serving parts of Iowa and South Dakota as well as Minnesota, supporting the Veterans Cemetery in Preston Minnesota, and introducing the STOCK Act which prohibited Members of Congress from abusing their positions by using private information obtained in their official position for personal purposes. There they are – Tim Walz’s foci in Congress — farmers, veterans, and integrity.
In 2018, he announced he would run for Governor. Shades of the John Kerry campaign, he was faced with two non-commissioned officers from the Minnesota National Guard claiming Tim Walz was lying about his rank as Command Sargeant Major. The Answer Man, in the Rochester (MN) Post Bulletin, got the following response from the Minnesota National Guard: Tim Walz served as a Command Sargeant Major in the Minnesota National Guard, and it was the highest and last rank that he held in our organization. It is correct for him to say that he served as a command sargeant major.” The complaint disappeared and Tim Walz was elected by more than 11% of the vote.
In 2018, Tim Walz had run on the theme of “One Minnesota” – attempting to bring people together in contrast to what was happening nationally. He was planning to open the MinnesotaCare insurance program to anyone who wanted to pay the premium, not just people eligible for Medicaid. He would raise the minimum wage and increase spending on schools and transportation. The only tax he discussed was a possible gasoline tax increase.
Life got in the way of Tim Walz’s priorities. Covid and the killing of George Floyd dominated his time as Governor. The National Guard was a factor in both. When the pandemic was at its height in Minnesota, Tim Walz called on the National Guard to ease staffing shortages that had made it difficult for hospitals to transfer patients to long-term care facilities. With regard to the disorders after George Floyd was killed, Tim Walz acknowledged he was slow in calling out the National Guard. “[I]f the issue was that the state should have moved faster, that is on me.” He was clear that he understood that order had to be restored “before we can start addressing the issues. Before we turn back to where we should be spending our energy: making sure justice is served.”
Tim Walz’s interest was in serving justice. He asked people to balance their outrage about the violent protests with an understanding of the despair and lack of trust that led to the violence. “What the world has witnessed since the killing of George Floyd…has been a visceral pain, a community trying to understand who we are and where we go from here.”
In 2022, he returned to the themes of his first campaign, but with the scars and the experience of a very tough four years and a greater focus on underserved communities. That focus was supported by his Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan who, in addition to being a Minnesotan is a citizen of the White Earth Nation.
Tim Walz’s Republican opponent, Scott Jensen, would not be suspected of concern for underserved communities. The DFL (Minnesota’s Democratic Party) describes Jensen, a medical doctor, as a Covid Conspiracy theorist. They point to Jensen’s appearance on Fox News where he claimed that hospitals overcounted Covid cases because they received more money for Covid patients under the stimulus bill. Recalculating the numbers which he believed to be overcounted, Jensen minimized the Covid death toll. While he was making his calculations, he claimed the Biden administration was revising how Covid deaths were counted so that it could claim responsibility for a reduction in Covid deaths. Jensen’s claims are all false.
Scott Jensen has also made false claims about the legitimacy of the 2020 election. He called for Minnesota’s Secretary of State and Minnesota’s Attorney General to be jailed “because you have gotten away with too much too long.” Sometimes, Scott Jensen stepped on his own lines. When he called for Minnesota to use paper ballots in elections, he was told Minnesota already uses paper ballots, though they were ballots designed to be tabulated by machine and by hand only in the case of a recount.
Scott Jensen reacted predictably to the recent court decisions. If he could, he would ban all abortions, without exception for rape or incest. Instead of abortion, he favors what he calls “universal adoption.” Long before the Supreme Court’s recent decision about carrying guns, Scott Jensen retracted previous support for gun safety solutions explaining his earlier views were “klutzy” and made members of his party uncomfortable. He performed this dance at the Republican Nominating convention.
Whether it is because of his views or in spite of them, Jensen appears to be a genuine contender against Tim Walz. A poll in June showed Jensen within 2 points of Tim Walz. A poll in May showed Jensen within 5 points of Tim Walz. A poll in January showed Jensen within 3 points of Tim Walz. Help Tim Walz fend off Scott Jensen, one more Republican who is part of the irresponsibility that Republicans have brought to the conversation about America.
Help Tim Walz keep his financial advantage in this campaign. Recently, the Democratic Walz-Flanagan campaign reported $4.5 million available for the rest of the campaign while the Republicans had just under $700,000. Tim Walz and his running mate will need to keep that advantage in the face of anticipated spending by outside Republican organizations. Donate to Tim Walz.
Consider the Candidates for Minnesota and its neighbors — Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, and the Dakotas
Minnesota
Governor Incumbent Tim Walz (Political Note #479) v Medical Doctor Scott Jensen who called for MN Secretary of State to be jailed.
Attorney General Incumbent Keith Ellison (Political Note #442) v Attorney Jim Schultz who promised to take “a sledgehammer” to the attorney general’s office
Secretary of State Incumbent Steve Simon v Kim Crockett who claims that George Soros is Steve Simon’s puppet master for Steve Simon.
State Auditor Incumbent Julie Blaha v Attorney Ryan Wilson, a former election lawyer for Donald Trump
Michigan
Governor Incumbent Gretchen Whitmore (Political Note #381) v whoever Republicans pick after 5 candidates were kicked out of the election for having forged signatures and one was arrested for his role in the January 6 insurrection.
Attorney General Incumbent Dana Nessel (Political Note #415) v Trump endorsed Attorney Matthew DePerno, a culture warrior of the right.
Secretary of State Incumbent Jocelyn Benson (Political Note #435) v Trump endorsed Kristina Karamo who describes herself as a Christian Apologist and avows that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
Wisconsin
Governor Incumbent Tony Evers (Political Note #366) v whoever the Republicans pick. Former Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch is leading in the polls. She acknowledged that she falsely claimed that her opponent for Lt. Governor, Mandela Barnes (now leading in the Democratic race for the US Senate) kneeled during the national anthem at the Wisconsin state fair.
Attorney General Incumbent Josh Kaul (Political Note #367) v whoever the Republicans pick.
Secretary of State Incumbent Doug LaFolette v whoever the Republicans pick
Iowa
Governor Marketing Consultant and former candidate Deidre DeJear v Incumbent Kim Reynolds, who sought abortion restrictions for Iowa
Attorney General Incumbent Tom Miller v County Attorney Brenna Bird who has promised to fight Biden’s mandates.
Secretary of State County Auditor Joel Miller v Incumbent Paul Pate
State Auditor Incumbent Rob Sand v Realtor Tod Halbur who was fired as comptroller of the state liquor authority.
North Dakota – The only 2022 races are for Attorney General and Secretary of State. Other officers run in 2024
Attorney General Attorney Timothy Lamb v Incumbent Drew Wrigley
Secretary of state University Administrator Jeffrey Powell v State Rep Michael Howe
South Dakota
Governor House Minority Leader Jamie Smith v. Incumbent Kristi Noem
No Democratic candidates for Attorney General or Secretary of State