OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) — In his first trip to his home state since the Democrats nominated him for vice president, Tim Walz on Saturday emphasized his Nebraska roots and drew keen parallels between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
Walz spoke to the crowd about his love of Nebraska football and joked about the historical significance of the replica of Stonehenge, built from vintage cars and called Carhenge, near his school in the Panhandle. He then emphasized the values he learned growing up, namely helping neighbors and minding other people’s business.
“More than anything else – just like here in Nebraska – Minnesota’s strength is based on our values,” he said of the state he serves as governor.
Walz stressed that he and Harris believe in helping all Americans succeed – not just the millionaires and billionaires he believes Trump and Republicans are trying to support. It was all part of his appeal for the only electoral vote in Omaha’s swing Second Congressional District, which can be split off from the rest of the heavily Republican state and which Democrats Joe Biden won in 2020 and Barack Obama won in 2008. That swing vote is sure to be contested. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance is expected to visit Omaha next week to attend a private fundraiser hosted by Nebraska Senator Pete Ricketts.
“I think it just proves the importance we have as the blue dot – CD2,” said Omaha teacher Wes Jensen.
Walz accused Republicans of interfering in people’s daily lives. He said the fact that they want to decide Americans’ health care, including abortion rights, and are trying to damage Social Security is “not just weird, it’s dangerous. And when they try to overturn elections, that’s not just weird, it’s un-American.”
He said Trump and his Republican colleagues were “very concerned about our bedrooms, our exam rooms and our libraries.”
Nebraska Democrat Chair Jane Kleeb joked at the start of the event that Omaha has a fresh nickname: “Kamaha,” and encouraged everyone at the rally to work tough to get Harris and Walz elected in November.
His supporters hope that Walz’s knowledge of rural America – he grew up in the tiny Sandhill towns of Valentine and Butte – could support Democrats gain traction in much of the Republican strongholds where they were barely competitive in recent elections.
Former Senator Al Davis, who represented the Panhandle town of Alliance, where Walz taught for six years before moving to Minnesota after meeting his wife, said he believes Walz can “reach out to rural areas of the country in a way that other candidates never could.” He added, “So I’m hoping that I can win some votes in rural areas of Nebraska and the entire Midwest.”
Alliance residents are planning their own local rally next week to hear Walz speak at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Even before Walz took the stage in Omaha, the Republican National Committee accused the Harris-Walz candidates of failing to represent “Midwestern values” and said Nebraska voters would “send a clear message” by helping to return the former president to office.
Bill McCamley of Lincoln said he remembered Walz being interested in politics when he taught him social studies in seventh grade in Valentine, but he never expected he would one day become governor or perhaps vice president.
McCamley said Walz came up with the idea of building a veterans memorial for all Cherry County military personnel while in seventh grade and then convinced local officials to build a walkway for the memorial.
“I went with him, but he did the work. He talked to them and said, this is this idea. This is what I want to do,” McCamley said. “Then he … got them to agree to go along with it. I thought that was pretty impressive.”
McCamley had to call the state Democratic Party to gain access to Saturday’s rally after the online registration system closed after 10,000 people expressed interest in attending the rally at a theater in the Omaha suburb of La Vista that is designed to hold only about 2,500 people. As unlikely as it was, McCamley was hoping for a chance to reconnect with his former student and jokingly confront him about a Valentine’s Day gift he gave his daughter, Julie Long, when the two were in seventh grade together.
Long said she kept the Valentine’s card Walz gave her for many years because the message, “Our relationship is weird and wonderful,” made her laugh. The inside of the card read, “You are weird and I am wonderful.”
“That describes his humor pretty well,” says Long, who always competed with Walz to see who was smarter because her father was a teacher and he was the school superintendent there.
They both moved away during high school, and Long lost track of Walz — aside from a chance encounter when they both lived in the Panhandle — until she noticed on the news that he was emerging as governor and dealing with challenging issues like the protests following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
Having navigated these unrests and pushed through key issues such as abortion protections and free school lunches, Walz now has a long list of accomplishments that should resonate with Democratic voters.
But Long said Walz could also be attractive to Republicans because he is sharp, humorous and cares about helping people.
“I think if people are willing to listen – really listen – to what he says and things like that, it will open doors for them,” said Long, who now lives in Hot Springs, South Dakota.
