Governor Tim Walz made a brief appearance at the Minnesota State Fair on Sunday, following a series of campaign events with Vice President Kamala Harris. Despite being brief, his visit featured noteworthy public interactions and involvement in customary fair events.
“Walz” chants in the Dairy Building as @Tim_Walz serves up ice cream and malts to Fairgoers. @GwenWalz chatting it up with supporters as well. pic.twitter.com/wCVBHfYq15
— Seth Kaplan 📺 (@Seth_Kaplan) September 1, 2024
A typical fair dish, pork chop on a stick, was Walz's first purchase at the fair. Hope Walz, his daughter, and Gwen Walz, his wife, were with him. Later, the family went to the Dairy Building and surprised the workers there by serving ice cream to fairgoers. They didn't know the governor was involved until secret service officers showed up right before the governor's shift.
After working at the dairy counter, Walz had a meeting with Rachel Visser, the recently proclaimed Princess Kay of the Milky Way, and took in the fair's famous revolving butter sculptures. Walz sarcastically mentioned his experience with pork chops in Iowa while praising the Minnesota State Fair as the greatest in the nation during his visit.
Governor Walz spent almost an hour in the area before leaving. The governor frequently uses the state fair as a platform during election campaigns, thus his attendance at the occasion was not unusual. He was spotted having fun on the slingshot ride with his daughter Hope last year, and in an interview with WCCO's Esme Murphy for his 2022 gubernatorial reelection campaign, he stated that he supports the right to have abortion.
The fair visit came after a pivotal week for Vice President Kamala Harris and Walz's campaign. The two recently took part in their first significant TV interview with CNN's Dana Bash following their nominations as vice president and president. During the interview, Walz addressed questions about his military service record, particularly a 2018 video where he referenced "weapons of war that I carried in war," despite not facing combat during his National Guard service. It was confirmed by a campaign spokesperson that Walz had "misspoken" in his previous comments. When challenged by Bash, Walz admitted that his grammar may have been incorrect and clarified that the remark was made in the context of a conversation about school shootings.
The conversation also focused on a widely shared incident from the Democratic National Convention, in which Gus, Walz's son, broke down in tears as he gave his father's vice-presidential nomination speech. In retrospect, Walz conveyed his sincere thankfulness, highlighting the emotional resonance of the event as well as the significance of his son's pride. The governor and his wife had recently shared in an interview with People magazine that their son, who lives with ADHD, an anxiety disorder, and a non-verbal learning disorder, is a "brilliant" teenager whose "secret power" lies in his neurodivergence.