Minn. Democrats hope Walz will provide down-ballot boost

By Ryan Faircloth

Good morning. The last time Gov. Tim Walz and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar were both on the ballot, Democrats swept every statewide race and won control of the Minnesota House. Will history repeat itself this November? State Democrats are optimistic that having the now vice-presidential candidate Walz and Klobuchar at the top of the ticket will help them retain their trifecta control of state government.

A Washington Post analysis found that vice presidential candidates boost their ticket by an average of 2.7 percentage points in their home states. That could translate to a larger victory for the Harris-Walz ticket that lifts other Minnesota Democrats on the ballot.

As for Klobuchar, a Star Tribune analysis of voter data found a correlation between election years when she is on the ballot and better results for Democrats in other races. Every year Klobuchar's run, the DFL has won whichever chambers of the Legislature were on the ballot.

"Klobuchar will still help us immensely down-ballot, but the addition of Gov. Walz, who's immensely popular here in Minnesota, certainly doesn't hurt. In fact, it helps," Minnesota DFL chairman Ken Martin said. "There's no denying right now that Republican candidates for the Legislature are in very serious trouble."

Minnesota GOP deputy chairwoman Donna Bergstrom said she's noticed an enthusiasm spike among state Democrats since Walz was elevated to the presidential ticket. But she said Republicans plan to counter it by highlighting what they see as Walz's shortcomings as governor.

"He's had a terrible record in Minnesota," Bergstrom said, accusing Walz of "letting Minneapolis burn" during the riots after the police killing of George Floyd.

MILWAUKEE RALLY: Walz and Vice President Kamala Harris took a detour from the Democratic National Convention on Tuesday to rally in Milwaukee. Our colleagues Rochelle Olson and Glen Stubbe were there for it.

Walz delivered a rousing pregame pep talk for Harris, telling a lively crowd that "something's happening," Olson writes.

"For the young folks in here, something's happening, and it all begins with Kamala Harris," the widely grinning Walz told a crowd of 15,000 at the Fiserv Forum arena, home of the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks.

"We've got to turn the page on these guys," Walz said, referring to former President Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio. The message was pointed, coming from the site of the Republican National Convention in July.

Trump appeared in Howell, Mich., as part of a battleground campaign swing aimed at countering the DNC. Standing alongside sheriff's deputies, Trump labeled Harris, a former San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general, as the "ringleader" of a "Marxist attack on law enforcement" across the country.

"Kamala Harris will deliver crime, chaos, destruction and death," Trump said in one of many generalizations about an America under Harris. "You'll see levels of crime that you've never seen before.

IVF: Minnesota First Lady Gwen Walz clarified this week that she and her husband used a common fertility treatment called intrauterine insemination to start their family, not in-vitro fertilization (IVF), which has become a national flashpoint in the debate over reproductive rights, my colleague Briana Bierschbach writes.

"Our fertility journey was an incredibly personal and difficult experience," she said in a statement.

After the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos created through IVF should be considered children, Gov. Walz started sharing his and wife's story in speeches and with press. Walz's governor campaign stated they used "I.V.F. to start a family."

In his debut as her running mate, he told a crowd in Philadelphia that the issue of IVF treatments is "personal for me and my family."

Intrauterine insemination (IUI) is a less invasive fertility procedure and, unlike IVF, the IUI procedure doesn't involve frozen embryos, which the Alabama court ruled should be considered children.

Walz's political opponents, including Vance, accused him of intentionally misleading the public on an issue that's at the center of a national heated debate. Vance posted a recent video on X where Walz said "my kids were born" through IVF, saying the governor "lied" about the procedure. "Who lies about something like that?" Vance said.

Mia Ehrenberg, a spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign, said Walz's previous comments about IVF reflect that the governor "talks how normal people talk. He was using commonly understood shorthand for fertility treatments."

DNC PROTESTERS: Thousands of demonstrators have protested outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week to call attention to the war in Gaza. There have also been protesters on the floor inside the convention in the form of uncommitted delegates, who've shown their outrage at President Joe Biden's policy toward Israel's approach to the war in Gaza, my colleague Josie Albertson-Grove, who's at the DNC, reports.

"Our whole presence is a protest," said Sam Doten, a Minneapolis activist who is one of the leaders of Minnesota's uncommitted delegation.

Minnesota's 11 uncommitted delegates are the largest of any state's protest delegation, elected to represent the nearly 46,000 voters who cast ballots for "uncommitted" instead of Biden in Minnesota's presidential primary in March.

They've attempted to make silent statements during the convention, writing "arms embargo now" on the backs of their hands and then placing their hands over their mouths during Biden's speech late Monday. The uncommitted delegates remained standing when others sat during Biden's speech. When other delegates noticed the protest, they stood up and held signs to block the protest from TV cameras' view.

WHERE'S WALZ: Walz has no public events on his schedule as governor. On the campaign side, he will deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night.

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