Tim Walz Attacked For Calling Rural Areas 'Mostly Rocks And Cows'—What He Really Said
By: Sara Dorn (Forbes)
Tim Walz didn't really say what he actually said. Or, maybe, Tim Walz didn't really mean what he meant to say. Or, was it that Tim Walz accidentally revealed his smug Democrat elitism.
Tim Walz ain't a good ol' boy from the country.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The Trump campaign is citing Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's 2017 description of his state's rural areas as "mostly rocks and cows" to attack the new Democratic vice presidential candidate, reviving an attack local Republicans have used against Walz for years—though Walz has argued he was taken out of context.
Key Facts
- Walz, describing conservative areas of his state during a roundtable while campaigning for governor in 2017, said Democrats "go into depression" when they see electoral maps shaded in red, but "it's mostly rocks and cows that are in that red area."
- At the time, the comments prompted a wave of backlash from Walz's GOP critics who have sought to link him to the stereotype that the Democratic Party is out-of-touch with the needs of Americans outside major cities.
- The comment resurfaced Tuesday as Walz ascended to the 2024 Democratic ticket: The Republican party tweeted a video of Walz making the statement after Vice President Kamala Harris announced him as her running mate.
- Walz has long noted the criticism lacks context, however: After the "rocks and cows" quip, Walz lamented that voters in rural areas often felt forgotten by politicians focused on more densely populated areas, explaining, "moving towards an urban population left a lot of people in areas where they were wondering where was the person speaking for them?"
- Walz campaign manager Nick Coe responded to criticism of the statement in 2017 by noting to the Rochester, Minnesota-based Post-Bulletin that Walz "was elected and re-elected five times in a rural district" and highlighted the broader context of Walz's statement, explaining that Walz was expressing the need for Democrats to "do a better job of speaking to rural voters if they want to have the same success as he has in responding to their concerns."
- The Harris campaign, when asked about the criticism, pointed to Walz's extensive personal and professional connections to rural America—he was born in small-town Nebraska and spent his summers working on his family's farm.
- In Congress, he represented the deep-red rural 1st congressional district from 2007-2019, serving on the House agriculture committee throughout his entire tenure and helping draft multiple farm bills that set funding for agriculture programs.
Contra
"When you look at Tim Walz, what you have is someone with a lived experience that is so comparable to so many of the people in rural America who are willing to maybe reconsider just blindly voting for the Republican Party candidate," former North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp told The New York Times last month.
Chief Critic
"Walz doesn't care about you unless you're a deranged leftist or an illegal alien. Just like Kamala," Trump's campaign said in a tweet referencing the video Thursday.
Key Background
Harris announced Tuesday she'd picked Walz from a list of about a dozen rumored prospects, a choice Democrats hope will help build support in the key midwestern swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin. Walz is virtually unknown on the national stage, according to polls, including a NPR/PBS/Marist poll released this week that found 71% of voters were unsure who Walz is or never heard of him. He is relatively popular in Minnesota, where he won re-election in 2022 by a seven-point margin, and where 56% of voters approve of the job he is doing, according to a July SurveyUSA poll.
Tangent
Walz, 60, chair of the national Democratic Governors Association, had a moderate record during his time in Congress and has overseen the passage of a string of Democratic policy priorities as governor, including expanding voting rights for formerly incarcerated residents and enshrining abortion rights into state law. He oversaw the state during the Covid-19 pandemic and the police brutality protests in the wake of George Floyd's death, prompting criticism form some Republicans over his handling of both issues.
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Glad the fact checkers cleared that up.
(In fruity flavors!)
It is true, that many parts of MN are rocks and cows, others are taconite and lots of rust. There are the pork farms and rocks that have poisoned the lakes.
Careful, you might upset Tim Walz.
After the last five years, my friends on the left can no longer automatically use that excuse. Not if they don’t want to be called out as the biggest group of hypocrites on planet Earth.
There are more cows than people in some of these red states, yet they have two US senators. That is the true insult in 2024.
Maybe JD Vance can make an argument for giving cows the vote, as long as that vote is controlled by their owners.
probably Trump would lose major support, asz
Cows can recognize bovine excrement,
from much further away
Those cows would probably make better choices than most leftists.
That's funny, but don't give up your day job. But hey, you wanna fix that? All you gotta do is start the process to get a Constitutional Amendment put through..
So why don't you stop eating beef and any dairy products.
Better throw in any fruits and vegetables- those are usually grown in red areas as well.
That will show those MAGA chud./S