Now that Kamala Harris has chosen Tim Walz as her running mate, voters are getting to know the Minnesota governor, who recently gushed about his first impressions of San Francisco.
Walz last week called San Francisco “just the greatest” in an interview with New York Times columnist Ezra Klein.
“Stayed down there, I was doing some meetings. Woke up, did my five-mile run through the Presidio to the Golden Gate, went back to my hotel and was downtown — and then I’m leaving, and I’m like, ‘That is the most beautiful city I’ve ever been in,’ ” Walz said on Klein’s podcast.
He and Klein were discussing how Americans have vilified swaths of the country that they perceive to be on the opposite end of the political spectrum.
Walz, relatively unknown on the national stage until recently, has been credited with almost single-handedly changing Democratic rhetoric this election cycle. He minted the party’s “weird” line of attack against Donald Trump and running mate J.D. Vance, creating a soundbite when he accused the two of “running for he-man woman haters club or something.”
Trump’s camp was quick to seize on Walz’s selection.
“It’s no surprise that San Francisco Liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coast wannabe Tim Walz as her running-mate,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s press secretary, wrote on X. “Walz has spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State.”
Leavitt accused Walz of spreading California’s “dangerously liberal agenda,” citing his climate legislation and the fact that he has embraced “policies to allow convicted felons to vote.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom, meanwhile, praised Walz’s selection.
“Tim Walz is about doing the right thing. Whether it’s free school meals or standing up against gun violence — he’s never been intimidated,” Newsom posted on X. “He’s about honor and decency, and is exactly the right pick in a campaign about daylight vs darkness.”