'They chose the billionaire': Tim Walz returns to Minnesota as part of 'revenge' tour

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Guardian

Mon 24 Mar 2025 07.00 EDT
Last modified on Mon 24 Mar 2025 09.42 EDT


Tim Walz is trying to regroup to help Democrats fight the Trump administration, but he’s still trying to figure out why he and his party lost in November. “I knew it was my job to try and pick off those other swing states, and we didn’t,” he said about the 2024 election. “I come back home to lick my wounds and say, goddamn, at least we won here.”

Walz was speaking on Saturday in Rochester, Minnesota – in the district he once represented in Congress, as part of his soul-searching tour around the country after the Democrats’ bruising 2024 defeat. Walz’s tour is part brand redemption, part Democratic catharsis, part rally. He hasn’t ruled out a 2028 run for president, though neither have most 2028 hopefuls.

“I thought it was a flex that I was the poorest person and the only public school teacher to ever run for vice-president of the United States,” Walz told a crowd of roughly 1,500 people that filled an auditorium and spilled into an overflow room on a Saturday morning. “They chose the billionaire. We gotta do better.” Many in the crowd remembered when Walz represented them in Congress, and asked him how he would fight against the dismantling of the Department of Education, defend the rights of trans people and build a bigger tent for Democrats.

Walz’s town hall was one of many large Democratic events in recent days, proving there’s growing energy for a forceful resistance to the US president. Much bigger crowds have turned up to see Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on a “stop oligarchy” tour. People have also filled town halls around the country to tell their elected officials how they’re affected by government cuts and policy changes. But where the energy goes remains to be seen.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/24/tim-walz-democrat-tour-minnesota

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As a DUer mentioned yesterday in another thread - attendance at "rallies" (and in this case, town halls) was apparently NOT an indicator of winning an election. But I would say it at least gives people an outlet and a chance to see these elected officials.

And what they keep scratching their heads about and ignoring is that BIGOTRY - racism, sexism, homophobia, etc., was the elephant in the room that distracted the voters who voted for 45. And if our leadership keeps ignoring that, they will be fruitlessly searching for the WRONG strategies to deal with the solutions needed for the country's problems.

This is why a whole pile of MAGats are STILL willing to get HURT ECONOMICALLY (tariffs, cuts in Medicaid and Social Security, etc.) because those "other subjects" were what they were viscerally voting to have happen.

It is an ugly and very very difficult thing to overcome, which is why they are struggling.

[Amaryllis]

1. "but he's still trying to figure out why he and his party lost in November."

Dems have been trying to figure out what they wrong for years, never looking at stolen elections as the cause of why they lost.

[usonian]

2. Note to Tim Walz. See the forest, not the trees.

I'm going to repost this graphic until everyone gets the point.
Including the "geniuses" with the AI computers.


ANALYZE THIS.

Bernie and AOC get it. They're beating the drum until it shakes the laces off peoples' shoes.

[SWBTATTReg]

3. And what they keep scratching their heads about and ignoring is that BIGOTRY - racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.,

was the elephant in the room that distracted the voters who voted for 45. And if our leadership keeps ignoring that, they will be fruitlessly searching for the WRONG strategies to deal with the solutions needed for the country's problems.

This is why a whole pile of MAGats are STILL willing to get HURT ECONOMICALLY (tariffs, cuts in Medicaid and Social Security, etc.) because those "other subjects" were what they were viscerally voting to have happen.

It is an ugly and very very difficult thing to overcome

[DallasNE]

4. That DUer Nailed It

Failure to recognize immigration as a code for bigotry WAS the key mistake of the 2024 election campaign. And it is playing out big time with the Haitians, Cubans, and others of color that have had their immigration status revoked, making all 540,000 of them immediately subject to deportation, which will lead to their death, out of sight and in droves, in the countries they are being deported to. It will be very ugly.