Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the failed 2024 vice presidential candidate, conducted a postmortem on his 2024 campaign with former Vice President Kamala Harris, determining the Democrats played it too safe during the cycle.
“We shouldn’t have been playing this thing so safe,” Walz told Politico in an interview published Saturday.
He added: “I think we probably should have just rolled the dice and done the town halls, where (voters) may say, ‘You’re full of s—, I don’t believe in you.’ I think there could have been more of that.”
Walz joined Harris on the Democratic ticket in August 2024, just days after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race in July amid mounting concerns over the commander in chief’s mental acuity and as Harris moved to pick up the mantle at the top of the ticket. The Harris campaign had just more than 100 days between Biden dropping out and rallying support for the Harris-Walz ticket on Nov. 5.
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The Trump-Vance ticket swept the battleground states on election night, catapulting them to victory with 312 electoral votes to Harris’ 226.
Walz has been on a media blitz in recent days, including speaking with the New Yorker, joining MSNBC ahead of President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress, speaking at the South By Southwest film festival on Saturday and teeing up an interview on California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast.
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Walz argued that Democrats “are more cautious” in engaging with the media than Republicans, while adding that he felt as if the campaign was never ahead, comparing it to a “prevent defense” strategy during a football game.
“In football parlance, we were in a prevent defense to not lose when we never had anything to lose because I don’t think we were ever ahead,” he said, which bolsters reporting following the election that internal Democratic polling showed Harris lagging behind Trump in the lead-up to Nov. 5.
Walz took ownership for the party’s loss in 2024, telling the outlet that “when you’re on the ticket and you don’t win, that’s your responsibility.”
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A handful of former presidential campaign staffers who spoke to the outlet under the condition of anonymity relayed that Walz wasn’t presented to voters in an effective manner, and was instead kept in a “box,” which they said compounded the Harris–Walz loss to the Trump–Vance ticket.
“He was underutilized and that was the symptom of the larger campaign of decision paralysis and decision logjam at the top,” one former senior Harris aide told the outlet. “Could he have changed a percent in Wisconsin? Maybe. We still lose even if we win Wisconsin.”
Walz was put “in a box,” and “we didn’t use him the way we could’ve,” the aide added.
“The world seemed to want more Tim Walz, and there were times when I wish they could’ve gotten more Tim Walz,” Democratic Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said, adding that he “wished they would’ve put [Walz] out there more.”
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“By the time they finally let him do anything at all, it’s like 20 days left, and he’s doing four states a day, and there’s only so much you could do,” another former staffer said of Walz. “It was too short.”
The aides argued that Walz faced a steep battle ahead of his debate against then-Ohio Sen. JD Vance, remarking that he was “super nervous” and “in his own head” while preparing to face the Trump running mate on the stage.
“It looked as if Vance was the conductor and Walz was following the script,” longtime Democrtic strategist David Axelrod told Politico of the VP debate. “I don’t think that was the reason they lost, but that was not helpful either.”
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Walz reportedly carried campaign flubs heavily on his mind, while some aides argued that the Harris campaign “didn’t do enough to punch back” against criticisms and defend Walz, such as when he falsely claimed he carried guns while in war. Walz joined the Army National Guard in 1981 and retired in 2005, but never saw combat.
“This was a guy who definitely was embarrassed by his flubs, didn’t handle them well, and seemed like there was a never-ending supply of them, so that was part of the issue of getting him out there everywhere,” a former Harris staffer told Politico. “I don’t look back on that campaign and think that the way we used Walz was a critical error.”
Walz revealed in an interview with the New Yorker, published March 2, that he is open to a potential presidential run in 2028, which was met with mockery by conservatives on social media earlier in March.
Walz reiterated in his Politico interview that he is “not saying no” to a potential 2028 presidential run if the opportunity should present itself.
“I’m staying on the playing field to try and help because we have to win,” Walz said. “And I will always say this, I will do everything in my power [to help], and as I said, with the vice presidency, if that was me, then I’ll do the job.”
Fox News Digital reached out to Walz’s office for additional comment on his remarks and did not immediately receive a reply.
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