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Gov. Tim Walz keeps a copy of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation blueprint for the Trump administration, on his desk as a kind of scorecard for Donald Trump’s second term.
For much of his 91 days as Kamala Harris’ vice presidential running mate in 2024, he invoked the conservative roadmap and warned that Trump would enact its policies should he return to the White House, even as Trump tried to distance himself from it.
“It’s what I thought they would do,” Walz told The Independent in an exclusive interview about the first few months of the Trump administration, the 2024 campaign and the way forward for Democrats. “I think they've been more effective.”
The Minnesota governor is in a unique spot in the Democratic Party. Once mostly known as a frontline Blue Dog Democratic congressman and then by others as a progressive governor, Walz curried favor with various wings of the party coalition to become Harris’ running mate ahead of some other prospects.
Walz also hit Republicans with an attack that stuck throughout the veepstakes: calling them “weird,” which Walz sticks by now that Republicans are in power.
“This is their obsession with other people's bedrooms, their just crazed economic theory around tariffs, the idea of hundreds of years of our allies who stand for the same values and to be thrown away,” he said.
He also expressed disappointment that Republicans have not stood up to Trump when it comes to issues over the rule of law or affording everyone, including non-citizen asylum seekers, due process.
And this does not even begin to go into Trump’s late-night tirades. In the wee hours of Monday, the day of the interview, Trump called for an “investigation” into singer Bruce Springsteen for his endorsement of Harris and Walz.
“Watching the craziness of Trump put out an AI video of him playing a Journey song because he's pissed off at Bruce Springsteen, is — that's, that's not what an American president does,” he said.
“I still believe a majority of Americans do not want to see a nearly 80 year old man pretend like he can play rock music because he's pissed off at an icon.”
Of course, Walz and Harris came up short. They lost all seven swing states and the popular vote. Afterward, Walz went back to Minnesota to serve as governor. In addition, he returned to the road, not as a candidate, but doing town halls in areas represented by Republicans.
During the town halls, he said, he’s heard people want to hear Democrats fight back.
“What I keep saying is, is that Democrats issues that we care about are things that people do care about, improving their lives, they just don't see them get done,” he said.
“I think the one thing is that I've seen with what Donald Trump has done is this just moving so fast and on so many fronts. We need to think that same way about the things that improve people's lives, of making sure that we're doing that.”
Walz listed off many of the accomplishments he made as governor of Minnesota, specifically providing universal free breakfast and lunch, paid family leave and renewable energy.
“And when I hear Republicans talk about they're the party of the working class, it just stuns me,” Walz said. “But right now, there's, there's a certain amount of truth with what they're saying. They're not for the working class, but they're certainly appealing to the working class.”
He also praised Harris for her ideas, such as using Medicare to pay for home care.
“It inspired me, I started talking about the campaign trail because she brought it up,” he said. “So again, we've got these good proposals. We need to put them into law. We need to be proud of the things that we stand for. We need to get the working class back.”
Walz also specifically pointed to the fact that Republicans are trying to rush through Trump’s massive domestic spending legislation, known as the “One Big, Beautiful Bill.” Democrats have specifically focused on the work requirements for Medicaid, and Walz said how as a governor it would devastate Minnesota’s budget.
“We have more people insured than almost any other state, and we would be devastated,” he said. “I cannot imagine, like Arkansas or something, of what would happen to them when they even have a higher percentage of folks, and it's especially rural folks and older folks that are impacted by it.”
The legislation might also prove to be helpful for Democrats come the midterm elections in 2026, Walz said.
“We're going to hang this around folks in the House, especially these members,” he said. “That's why they're having such a hard time with this budget, because they know how dangerous this is.”
Walz’s ascent came at a strange time. In the days following President Joe Biden’s poor debate performance, he, Mayrland Gov. Wes Moore and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul held a press conference showing he steadfastly supported the president.
Then, only a few weeks later, he received the call from Harris after she became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. That took him to speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago before debating JD Vance and traversing the country.
Like many other Democrats, Walz has tried to figure out what went wrong for his party. The Democratic Party remains historically unpopular even as Trump’s approval ratings go down. Walz has said he owns part of the loss.
“I will go to my grave believing that Joe Biden in 2020 got us out of Covid, saved lives, moved an infrastructure bill, stabilized the economy and had us headed towards a soft landing,” he said. “But I don't know how much we talked about that, but I also think we missed things where prices were still too expensive for people, which you know, Trump said he'd fix and we all knew he couldn't.”
Since losing to Trump, the Democratic Party has faced an internal debate about where to go next and what their messaging should be. Walz’s fellow Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom of California, has hosted a podcast with Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon.
By contrast, far-left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent socialist from Vermont, have staged an anti-oligarchy tour. Others like Sen. Elissa Slotkin, who won her seat in Michigan despite Harris and Walz losing the state, have focused on discussing the economy, unions and Elon Musk, the head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.
“I think Bernie and AOC are 100% right, I think the transfer of wealth and the inability to have upward mobility is is just destroying people,” he said. “Senator Slotkin, she's 100% right to be focusing on making sure labor unions are strengthened and that we're able to do live that middle class life. What I said is, is that the Democrats have to refine this message.”
Walz also praised Sen. Cory Booker, of New Jersey, delivering a speech for more than 25 hours on the Senate floor protesting GOP policies. In the same token, Walz has also caught the attention of Musk, who chided him for cheering the drop in Tesla’s stock since Musk came to Washington. But Walz has not backed down.
“In my lifetime, this thing was Elon Musk being the guy who cuts basic services boils my blood more than anything I've ever dealt with in politics, because it is just so fundamentally wrong, and we as Democrats have to go back and convince people of how wrong that is,” he said.
Despite coming short last year, Walz remains in high demand. While he passed on running for Sen. Tina Smith’s seat, he continues to speak regularly on television and later this month, will head down to South Carolina to speak to the state’s Democratic Party convention.
South Carolina is, of course, one of the early presidential primary states that propelled both Biden and Barack Obama. Walz said former House majority whip James Clyburn, whose endorsement of Biden played a major role in his winning the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, asked him to speak. Walz served with Clyburn when he was a congressman from 2007 to 2019.
“He was a mentor, not just a colleague,” Walz said. “He asked if I would come. For me, it's an honor, personally to do that.”
But when asked if he would seek the presidency, Walz demurred, saying only, “I think that a Democrat needs to win in 2028 and I think everybody's on the field, everybody's bringing their skill set.”
Walz said it is important to keep going around the country making the case regardless of how red a place is, pointing to how a Democrat in Mississippi almost became governor in 2023.
“That, to me, is why I go to these places,” he said. “If I get asked, I'll try my best to go and bring what I know.”
English (US) ·