Tim Walz Says He Warned Harris of His ‘Weaknesses’ at the Start of Their Campaign: ‘I Can Be a Train Wreck’

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) told New York Magazine he warned former Vice President Kamala Harris that he was aware of his strengths and weaknesses when she chose him as her 2024 running mate.

According to the 2024 vice presidential nominee, he was upfront about the fact that, in his estimation, he can be a “train wreck” up to 10 percent of the time.

During an interview with politics reporter Daniel Strauss, Walz opened up about the short 2024 Harris campaign, which was thrown together quickly after former President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid last July.

Walz said he is hopeful his party will reengage voters before the next election, but he also candidly touched on the 2024 race and his role in it.

Strauss commented, “It doesn’t feel like the party was very bold when you and Harris got on the ticket in the latter half of the 2024 campaign.” Walz responded:

I think we’re cautious by nature. And look, I said this and I told the vice-president, I said I know my strengths and weaknesses. I said about 90 percent of the time, I can be really good, but about 10 percent of the time, I can be a train wreck because I’m speaking from the heart, like a teacher sitting in a teachers lounge or a laborer sitting at the break table.

I thought they would choose the district attorney and the teacher over the hedge-fund manager and the billionaire.

On the matter of whether Democrats took any “bold” chances in 2024, Walz said he refused to publicly criticize Harris or the campaign.

“They need to do what they need to do, but I don’t think Vice-President Harris got to be bold,” he said. “We were dealing with a short runway. That was that one election. I think it would be foolish for us to take a ton of lessons from that because this has been going on for several cycles, certainly since 2016, that we are really struggling to broaden our appeal and energize folks.”