Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, former Vice President Kamala Harris’ failed running mate, described his 2024 vice presidential campaign with Harris — and their sweeping defeat to the Republican Trump-Vance ticket — as “pure hell” during his recent MSNBC television interview on Tuesday.
“That was… it was pure hell and the disappointment and the frustration,” Walz told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. “I’m, you know, soul searching – what could we have done to make the case?”
The governor also expressed concern about Democratic voter fatigue amid President Donald Trump’s initial executive actions.
“You know that overused term, ‘The frog in the boiling water?’ We’ve been in the damn pot way too long,” Walz said. “To the voters, I’m with this too. Everybody’s fatigued. Trust me, I get it.”
In December interviews with Minnesota media outlets, Walz had admitted being stunned by the election results.
“It felt like at the rallies, at the things I was going to, the shops I was going in, that the momentum was going our way, and it obviously wasn’t at the end,” Walz told KSTP. “So yeah, I was a little surprised. I thought we had a positive message, and I thought the country was ready for that.”
When questioned about how Harris handled the failed campaign, and his impact on their election defeat, Walz deflected.
“History will write that,” said at the time. “It wasn’t my decision to make. It was the vice president’s decision. As I said in this campaign, when you asked the question, ‘Were there things you could have done differently?’ Since we lost, the answer is obviously yes.”
During his MSNBC appearance, Walz urged Democrats to remain focused on stopping the voter mandate to Trump’s new administration.
“Don’t take the bait on the distractions. Surround yourself with people who understand this, and recognize the things they went after today are basically a big chunk of what society does, and people like to have clean water, and hospitals, and safety, and roads, and airports, all the things that they are going after,” he said.
The Harris-Walz ticket became the first Democratic presidential campaign to lose the national popular vote since 2004. Walz has kept a low public profile since the election, appearing only in local media and social media posts, including a recent video showing him working on his BMW in his Minnesota garage.
Looking ahead, Walz has remained noncommittal about his political future, including a potential third term as Minnesota governor.
“I think it’s a little too early to tell,” he told Fox 9. “We’re focusing on an upcoming legislative session. Keep continuing to work on that and then we’ll decide from there.”