Minnesota GOP chair criticizes Gov. Walz’s VP nomination 

One thing seems clear about the 2024 election: If you want to hear divergent viewpoints, talk to a Democrat and a Republican on the same subject. While Minnesota Democrats are enthusiastic about Kamala Harris’ choice of Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, Minnesota Republican Party Chair David Hann, an Eden Prairie resident, has a decidedly different point of view.

Hann believes one of the primary motivations for the choice of Walz is the Democrats’ concern that they will be unable to carry Minnesota in the presidential election.

“Asking him (Walz) to serve as their candidate for vice president is a pretty strong indication that the Democrats are very worried about whether they can carry Minnesota, and they should be,” Hann said on Tuesday. “I think people in Minnesota, other than the very hard-core Democrats, have been deeply dissatisfied with the policies of the Walz administration, and his making promises to do one thing and doing something else. The economy and the public safety challenges we have that are attributable to his administration’s choices, I think we are going to see not just Republicans but independent voters who are looking to vote against Gov. Walz this fall.”

Regarding how the Walz candidacy will affect the Republican party’s fundraising and ability to elect candidates in Minnesota, Hann said, “I think it will help us … this is a referendum on the Biden administration, and the polling shows us there is great dissatisfaction not just in Minnesota but across the country with their policy choices.”

He noted that Walz’s selection means Minnesota will likely receive more attention from former President Donald Trump’s campaign.

“They (the Trump campaign) have made a very strong commitment to Minnesota, in some ways unprecedented,” Hann said. “They very much put Minnesota in the spotlight at the convention. Both Trump and (J.D.) Vance came for fundraisers and for political events here in Minnesota. This Thursday, the co-chairs of the Republican Party, Michael Whatley and Lara Trump, are going to be here for an event in Minnesota. We think that they believe that Minnesota is a state that can be won by the Trump campaign.”

Hann, who served as a state senator from 2003 to 2016, repeatedly emphasized the unpopularity of the Biden and Walz administrations and what he refers to as Walz’s radical socialist politics.

“Anyone who likens socialism to being a good neighbor, there is something pretty weird about that idea,” Hann said.

(A July 2024 Gallup poll listed President Joe Biden’s approval rating at 36%, with an average rating for his presidential term at 43%. In 2023, a KSTP/SurveyUSA poll gave Walz a 54% approval rating among registered Minnesota voters and a 38% approval rating outside the metro area.)

Hann also commented on the potential for a vice presidential debate, claiming he has no inside knowledge on the subject but said, “I wouldn’t be surprised.”

He was not surprised by Walz’s selection, noting that Walz had consistently appeared on reported short lists of potential candidates. However, Hann did express some surprise that the choice was not Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who was also frequently mentioned.

Hann thought Shapiro would have been a more logical choice because Pennsylvania is a battleground state with more than twice as many electoral votes as Minnesota, and Shapiro is very popular. Hann said Shapiro was not chosen “because they (the Harris campaign) are concerned about the divide that exists in the Democratic party between the pro-Israel and pro-Hamas constituencies that they are trying to bring together. That is a huge problem, and I don’t think they are going to be successful doing that.”

When asked if he thought Shapiro was not selected because he is Jewish, Hann responded, “There has been a lot of talk about that.”   

Hann claimed the Minnesota business community is very opposed to Walz. “I have never seen the business community as unified as they are in their criticism of the anti-business regimen of the Walz administration,” he said.

He agreed with the Trump campaign’s characterization of Walz as a “left-wing extremist.”

“Absolutely,” Hann said. “He is the most partisan governor we have had in my memory, and he has completely catered to the most far-left base of the Democratic Party. In the last 10 years or so, we have seen almost every one of the centrist Democrats refuse to run again or not get reelected, and so the Democratic Party has become a party of the far left.”

Explaining why Republicans have done poorly in Eden Prairie in recent elections, Hann said, “In the last number of years, there has been a trend where people who vote Democratic in Minneapolis and St. Paul have been frustrated by the results of their policy choices, so they leave and come to suburban areas but don’t change their politics.”

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Related Story: State Sen. Steve Cwodzinski (DFL-49, Eden Prairie) celebrates Gov. Walz’s VP nomination, praising his background as a teacher and public servant.