U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster is optimistic that having her good friend and former U.S. House colleague Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota on the Democratic Party’s national ticket will help her party carry New Hampshire in the presidential election.
“I’m very excited about his influence on the ticket here and I think it takes us out of contention,” Kuster emphasized in an interview with the Monitor on Friday, three days after Vice President Kamala Harris named Walz as her running mate.
Democrats have carried swing state New Hampshire in presidential elections dating back to 2004. But following President Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump – the Republican Party’s presidential nominee – in late June, public opinion polls in the Granite State suggested a margin of error race between Biden and Trump.
But a trio of polls conducted after Biden suspended his re-election campaign last month and the party instantly coalesced around the vice president indicated Harris with a single-digit lead over Trump in New Hampshire.
Kuster, who’s retiring from the U.S. House after serving a dozen years representing the state’s Second Congressional District (which includes Concord and many of its surrounding communities), said there’s been a “turnaround” in the polls with Harris at the top of the Democrats’ ticket and Walz as the running mate and she said their presence will influence down-ballot races.
“It’s going to help us win the two congressional seats and win the governor’s race,” she predicted.
Kuster, who said she’s texted a couple of times with Walz since he was named the party’s 2024 vice presidential nominee, said “we’ll definitely see him up here” on the campaign trail.
The 60-year-old Walz, a former high school teacher and football coach, served a dozen years representing a rural red-leaning district in southern Minnesota in Congress before winning election as the state’s governor in 2018. He and Kuster became colleagues and friends during their six overlapping years serving in the U.S. House.
Kuster said she was “thrilled” when she heard the news that Walz has been named as Harris’ running mate.
And Kuster said she did some lobbying behind the scenes.
Kuster said she didn’t say anything publicly about her effort because she “wanted to be sure that Vice President Harris made the decision that was best for her.”
She had her eye on another top Democrat, too.
“I had been advocating privately for Tim Walz and Pete Buttigieg, who were my top choices,” Kuster said.
Buttigieg, the U.S. Transportation Department Secretary in the Biden administration, was backed by Kuster during his longshot-to-key contender campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
Asked about Walz, Kuster said he was a smart choice for Harris.
“He doesn’t aspire to the presidency… He’ll be very deferential to her. He’ll be very respectful.”
And she said Walz, who grew up in a small town in Nebraska, is a “very easy-going, down-to-earth person, not pretentious in the slightest. He speaks to a broad range of voters who are the very people we’d like to welcome into our coalition to win in November.”
Trump, his running mate U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, and their campaign have been blasting both Harris and Walz as “dangerously liberal.” When it comes to Walz, they point to his more progressive agenda as Minnesota governor rather than his more middle-of-the-road record in Congress.
“That’s going to fall flat completely as the public gets to know him,” Kuster argued as she was asked about Republican messaging of Walz as a far-left politician.
“He’s a moderate,” she said as she noted that Walz’ former congressional district “was very similar to mine.” And she spotlighted that similar to her situation, Walz flipped a red district blue.
“I think he’s going to do an outstanding job connecting with rural voters,” she said.
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Publish date : 2024-08-09 07:35:00
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