Though Vice President Kamala Harris -- or at least someone who is advising her -- seemed to that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was just the person to thread the needle and secure the support of Midwesterners come November.
However, recent polling suggests that Harris' choice of Walz may have been a catastrophic decision, at least if current political opinion in his home state is any barometer, as Breitbart reports.
As support for the thesis stated above, Breitbart's John Nolte points to polling data from July as compared to where it currently sits, now that Harris has tapped Walz as her running mate.
Nolte explains that in July, just after President Joe Biden exited his re-election campaign but before she picked a vice-presidential candidate, Harris boasted a 10-point lead over Donald Trump in Walz's home state.
However, the same KTSP/Survey USA study conducted in the wake of the Democratic National Convention at which Walz was formally introduced as part of the ticket reveals a dramatic downward trajectory for Harris.
In seeming defiance of the typical convention bump in polling numbers, Harris has seen the prior lead slashed in half, leaving her with just a five-point advantage over Trump in the traditionally left-leaning state Walz serves as governor.
Perhaps most interesting of all is the fact that ever after the convention hoopla and a media blitz of unfailingly positive coverage of the Democratic Party ticket, there is little difference between Trump's standing against Harris in Minnesota and his prior standing against the faltering Biden.
Not only has Walz been forced to answer allegations of “stolen valor” related to misrepresentations of his military service, he has remained on the defensive regarding other potentially embellished aspects of his life and career.
As the New York Post reports, the latest such controversy stems from a story Walz has regularly told about events he says inspired him to go into politics.
However, his tale of supposed mistreatment at a George W. Bush campaign rally has since been called into serious question in terms of the participants involved and the circumstances leading to the events at issue.
Former Bush campaign aide Chris Faulkner, who was present at the rally Walz has frequently referenced, took issue with the governor's claim that he harbored no political intentions until after the event, saying, “It's clear he was politically involved before that moment. He was protesting in front of the ticket distribution center. It's all bulls**t. He was looking for an origin story. And he made one up.”
Any regret Harris may be feeling about Walz may be poised to intensify in the coming weeks, if recent reporting from the New York Post proves prescient.
According to the outlet, Tim Walz's estranged brother. Jeff Walz, has come out and declared himself “100% opposed to all his ideology” and stated that the governor is not the “type of character” suited to make critical decisions about the country's direction.
Hinting at a potentially massive trove of dirt on the Democrats' vice-presidential pick, Jeff Walz mused, “The stories I could tell.” Surely, Harris and the team guiling her are certainly holding their collective breath, hoping that he won't.
