| Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has been part of numerous debates, but none will be bigger than his matchup Tuesday with Ohio Sen. JD Vance. The two vice presidential nominees have been tangling from a distance since each joined their tickets: Vance as Republican Donald Trump’s running mate and Walz as the ballot companion to Democrat Kamala Harris. Dana Ferguson goes back through time to assess Walz as the debater — from his speed talk to his soft-spoken approach to his blow-the-speakers-out style. Past opponents of Walz came in with a game plan to get under his skin and sometimes succeeded. Walz has been downplaying his debate prowess, a lowering-the-bar tactic as old as time.
One of the discussion points that could arise Tuesday night is about Tim Walz’s time in China. It’s an aspect of his life he talked more about earlier in his political career and one that Republicans have tried during this campaign to turn into a liability for the vice presidential nominee. Our colleagues over at APM Reports took a deep dive into his travels there , including many trips he led as a social studies teacher where he brought groups of students abroad. The story has vivid details about what those trips were like, how Walz interacted with local culture and explores his accounts of the amount of time he spent there. Check out some of the never-before-public video of him in China. The story also includes comments from the Harris-Walz campaign defending his experience abroad but also acknowledging that some of his past remarks about it were wrong.
If you’re building a game of debate bingo, I’m sure there are a few easy adds to your cards. Menards, coach, riots in conjunction with Walz; Mawmaw, Springfield, cat ladies associated with Vance. On that last one, our resident cat expert Sam Stroozas wrote about the place of felines in this year’s presidential race. Normally, it’s all about the dogs.
We talked about the polling in the 2024 presidential race and other contests on Politics Friday. The show included our chat with a debate coach ahead of Tuesday’s debate. Dana and Clay Masters came by to talk about what they’re watching as we move ever closer to the election finale. If you missed it, find that episode here.
With about a month left to go before Election Day, expect tensions to rise. We’re already seeing reports of politically related vandalism and people on edge. There was a man cited by Red Wing police last week for damaging a pop-up store selling Trump-themed merchandise. In St. Paul, the Secretary of State’s Office was evacuated as law enforcement checked out a suspicious package that contained threatening language and a white, powdery substance, which authorities later determined to be non-hazardous. Secretary of State Steve Simon’s office said the package had a return address that read: “United States Traitor Elimination Army.” Take a breath, folks.
There are now six cases to fix ballot errors before the Minnesota Supreme Court. State law spells out the “errors and omissions” election contest petitions to fix problems rather than letting administrators correct them unilaterally. Pending petitions involve ballots in Beltrami, Dodge, Faribault, Hennepin, Martin and Wabasha counties. Some involve the incorrect placement of candidates on ballots, others are to fix typos and a couple are to add a missing “incumbent” label for judicial candidates. Swift disposition of the cases is expected given that early voting is well under way. For comparison, there were four such election contests during the 2022 general election. There was one in 2020 and three Republican-related lawsuits ahead of that election. | 
