OMAHA, Nebraska — Thousands of Nebraska residents are expected to descend on their son’s birthplace on Saturday. Tim Walz during his first trip back to his home state since becoming the Democratic nominee for vice president.
Supporters hope that Walz rural roots — he grew up in the small Sandhills towns of Valentine and Butte — could help Democrats appeal to large swaths of Republican strongholds where they have rarely been competitive in recent elections.
However, his appearance in Omaha also strengthened the campaign’s interest in the single elector vote that comes with winning the swing 2nd Congressional District, which Joe Biden secured in 2020 and Barack Obama in 2008. Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance is expected to visit Omaha next week for a private fundraiser hosted by Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts.
“I think it just goes to show how important we are as the blue dot – CD2,” said Omaha teacher Wes Jensen.
Former Sen. Al Davis, who represented the Panhandle City Alliance, where Walz taught for six years before moving to Minnesota after meeting his wife, said he thinks Walz “can speak to rural areas of the country in ways that other candidates never could.” He added, “So I’m hoping that will bring some votes in rural areas of Nebraska and throughout the Midwest.”
Alliance residents are planning their own local gathering next week to hear Walz speak at the Democratic convention in Chicago.
Bill McCamley of Lincoln said he remembered Walz, now governor of Minnesota, being interested in government when he taught him seventh-grade social studies at Valentine School. But he never expected to become governor or vice president.
McCamley says Walz came up with the idea of building a veterans memorial for everyone from Cherry County who had served in the military when he was in seventh grade. He then convinced local leaders to build a sidewalk in front of the memorial.
“I went with him, but he did the work. He talked to them and said this is the idea. This is what I want to do,” McCamley said. “Then he got them to agree to participate. I thought that was pretty impressive.”
McCamley had to call the state Democratic Party to gain access to Saturday’s rally after its online registration system was shut down after 10,000 people expressed interest in attending the event at a theater in the Omaha suburb of La Vista, which is only designed to hold about 2,500 people. As unlikely as it may seem, McCamley hoped for a chance to reconnect with his former student, jokingly confronting him about a Valentine’s card he gave his daughter, Julie Long, when the two were dating in seventh grade.
Long said she held on to the Valentine’s Day card Walz gave her for years because the message that read, “Our relationship is weird and wonderful,” made her laugh. The inside of the card read, “You’re weird and I’m wonderful.”
“That about sums up his humor,” said Long, who used to compete with Walz to see who was smarter because her father was a teacher and he was the principal there.
They both moved in high school, and Long lost track of Walz — except for a chance meeting when they both lived in the Panhandle — until she saw him in the news as a governor dealing with tough issues like the protests that followed The Murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police.
After dealing with that turmoil and managing to address important priorities such as protection for abortion and free lunches for school children, Walz has a long list of accomplishments that will appeal to Democratic voters.
But Long said Walz could also appeal to Republicans because he is smart, funny and eager to help people.
“I think if people are willing to listen — really listen — to the things that he says and things like that, it will open doors,” said Long, who lives in Hot Springs, South Dakota, and is unable to accompany her father to the rally.