2 October 2024
MANKATO — Dissenters of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’ gathered in his hometown Tuesday night, Oct. 1, cheering for Republican JD Vance and sneering at Walz as they watched the pivotal vice presidential debate at a GOP-organized viewing party.
The watch party, organized by the Minnesota GOP and Trump 47, a citizen-led group, had appearances from Republican Congressmen Pete Stauber of Minnesota’s eighth district and Brad Finstand of Minnesota’s first district. Both congressmen voiced criticism of the current governor throughout the night.
“I don’t think he’s exactly the same governor that we’ve known,” Finstand said after the debate. “He sure doesn’t seem to be as comfortable in front of the camera tonight as he has been over the years.”
Before the debate, the Minnesota congressmen addressed the crowd, saying Minnesotans know what to expect from Walz.
“An election is really about a resume, and his resume speaks for itself, and we’re all living under it, right?” Finstad said. “He’s going to try to tell us that he wants to turn the page. We need a new book, and we’re going to hear that tonight.”
Stauber echoed Finstad’s comments, saying he thinks Minnesotans have been let down by the governor.
“Minnesotans in general, very disappointed with what has happened,” Stauber said. “You go from a $19 billion surplus to a $10 billion tax increase. He watched Minneapolis burn for three days; as a former cop, he was devastating to law enforcement.”
Stauber added that he feels there is limited support for Walz, and that his support comes from a specific faction of the population.
“I tell people that he’s very unpopular,” Stauber said. “He has pleased just a small fraction of the people, and they’re the far extreme left of his party.”
Just over 60 Republicans gathered for the viewing at the Kato Entertainment Center in Mankato, where collective cheers, laughs, claps and boos could be heard throughout the 90-minute debate, which was hosted and live streamed by CBS News.
Yvonne Simon, Chair of Blue Earth Republicans from Lake Crystal, was one of the main organizers of the viewing party.
Before the debate started, Simon carefully placed “TrumpVance” stickers at each seat, and spoke about why she, as a Minnesotan, doesn’t support Walz.
“Almost everything he’s done as governor I didn’t like,” Simon said. “I didn’t like what happened in Minneapolis, that he didn’t stop the burning and looting and rioting. I don’t like socialist plans that he’s put in place, things like illegal immigrants getting driver’s licenses and being registered to vote because of that.”
Terry Stier, chief of police in Belle Plaine, running for Minnesota House seat 22B, echoed this as one of his main concerns with Walz, though he clarified, “He’s still my governor.”
“My officers are directly affected by the civil unrest, and over the last four years, since that, we’ve had a lot of police reform, a lot of things that, in my opinion, make cops less safe on the streets,” Stier said.
Stier added after the debate that he felt Walz was misleading in some of his comments and focused too heavily on metropolitan areas.
“A lot of things are not true what he was saying about Minnesota,” Stier said. “But he needs to focus more on Greater Minnesota, rather than just the City of Minneapolis, which is all he talked about. There’s a lot of great people that live in Minnesota and they don’t live in Minneapolis.”
In one positive note, Finstad pointed out that he was happy Minnesotans were gathering to watch the debate and explained the differences in what people saw tonight compared to the presidential debate.
“Not even from a Republican standpoint, but I think from a USA standpoint, this was actually a pretty healthy debate,” Finstad said “You’re actually hearing some, some deeper conversations about the economy, about the border, I think we as a country are winning by hearing, hearing what they all had to say.”
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