this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2024
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Summary

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s running mate, suffered a personal setback in the 2024 election as he lost his home county, Blue Earth, to President-elect Donald Trump.

Trump won 49.6% of the vote there, while Harris received 48.3%, marking a symbolic defeat for Walz, who built his political career in the area.

Walz, a former teacher and congressman known for his moderate stance, had previously turned a Republican seat Democratic and won Minnesota’s governorship by a large margin in 2018.

His campaign faced challenges, including scrutiny over past statements about military service, which the Trump campaign leveraged as a “Stolen Valor” issue.

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[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 160 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (2 children)

Fucking brutal.

I mean wow. The hometown hero plays before an empty arena.

[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 101 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 12 hours ago) (2 children)

The hits really keep coming today

I'm not even lying yall I just got home and cried for a while sitting in the work van

I also looked at some guns today

This is rough

Edit: I feel I should make it clear, I'm not a risk to myself or anyone, I'm just fucking terrified

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 38 points 12 hours ago (5 children)

We should have just turned the convention into a mini-primary, like Obama wanted. Maybe this was the reason why he was so hesitant to endorse Kamala. He wanted her to earn it because thats how you get people to vote for you.

Jesus christ someone couldn't have just pushed Biden down some stairs in like, February? Not like a bunch, but maybe 3-4? Just enough for us to have had some kind of testing of the candidates?

[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 40 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

It's mind-blowing how badly the DNC fucked this all up. They learned nothing from history, theirs or their opponent's. If that party doesn't actually crumble as a result of this, both from internal and external pressures, I'll be amazed.

I'm so angry. And scared. All at once. Just miserable really.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 26 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

If that party doesn’t actually crumble as a result of this, both from internal and external pressures, I’ll be amazed.

Oh the Irony, this is exactly what I thought would happen to the Republicans.

[–] A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world 10 points 8 hours ago

We could hope but the fact is, the right wing in America is organized and the left just isn't. Evangelical conservatives have been working for this for years, and it's gotten them results - no Republicans would give up power to voice their actual dissent meaningfully. They bought the ticket, they're taking the ride.

The Democrats are just a flimsy mishmash of corrupt manipulators. They haven't had a coherent plan for ages. And now, they've got nothing, and a man is about to retake office who's threatened to use the State against his political opponents.

If I were a top Democrat right now, I'd be thinking real hard about whether the party even has a future, long-term.

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[–] steeznson@lemmy.world 7 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

I think Pete Butigeg would have been a stronger candidate.

[–] PhobosAnomaly@feddit.uk 10 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Speaking from across the pond, I think Pete would have been brilliant... but then that's hardly part of the job description any more is it? A breeze block with the ability to talk shit and grift would unfortunately be a far more electable candidate this year.

Plus, if electing a woman was too troublesome for people to handle, what would happen if they fielded one of the gays!!!?!??

It's a disgrace really. Either Pete or Kamala would have been a safe pair of hands.

[–] steeznson@lemmy.world 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

I'm also from the UK but from what I could tell at least Pete has some personality. Kamala ran as the establishment manifested in human form, clumsily avoiding questions or policy details in media appearances. She was polling at 4% of popularity amongst democrat voters during the 2020 primaries. I think those factors were more influential than her being a woman,

[–] PhobosAnomaly@feddit.uk 2 points 11 hours ago

Absolutely agree with you - I think perhaps Kamala was too safe a pair of hands and didn't generate enough excitement - but then I'm too old for watching fancy headline grabbers (though Ed Davey's approach to Lib Dem vote grabbing at the GE this year was highly entertaining) so to me, a boring but competent candidate is good for me.

I suppose I only brough up her gender and his sexuality because they both share an "outlier" characteristic that Republicans in general aren't too fond of.

Nice to hear from you fellow Brit!

[–] frayedpickles@lemmy.cafe 3 points 4 hours ago

So you think someone who was incompetent in his job in the Biden admin, failed in primaries, only has real experience as a mayor, is gay, and in 2020 was incessantly ridiculed by insecure men as "mayo Pete" and endless permutations of "butt"-xyz due to being gay....would have won.

Lol

[–] Kaboom@reddthat.com 3 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (2 children)
  1. Don't kill yourself

  2. If you decide to buy a gun, I suggest a 1911, they're fun to shoot!

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I did my training on the Beretta M9 and the Mausberg 500.

[–] Kaboom@reddthat.com 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Neat, the M9 is a good choice, and 9mm is plentiful and cheaper than 12 gauge.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Meh. Its just what I was trained on. I've never been an enthusiast.

[–] Kaboom@reddthat.com 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Hold on, you were trained on a shotgun and a handgun? No rifle? Are you a cop?

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

No, we trained M16 as well, but spent way more time on M9/ shotgun. My assumption was always that our job was just to be targets in the case something actually happened. I also trained 50 cal.

I'm interested if you can figure out what service I was in based on what I've told you so far.

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)
[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)
[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago (1 children)
[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 1 points 2 hours ago

The 50cal is a dead give away (imo).

[–] Kaboom@reddthat.com 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Without going into profile history, and assuming American, I'm guessing a land based service, either the Army or Marines. Seeing as the Marines had M16s longer than the Army did. I'm going with Marines.

That said, I have a hunch you might be European somehow. Maybe Germany from how you misspelled Mossberg? You'd have to be NATO, but I'm not super knowledgeable about the German services.

[–] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Nope. My secret is safe. I'll give another hint. Those were the only fire arms we carried underway, and they were mostly considered a joke. Especially the 50cal.

[–] SupraMario@lemmy.world 2 points 6 hours ago

I think they're implying for safety.... not for an easy way out.

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

So, I hear you, but who do you think would've outperformed Harris? And don't say someone more progressive, because the battleground states would just be that much redder.

[–] RubberElectrons@lemmy.world 4 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

So what? Redder than blood red?

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 7 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

Yes. Yes, exactly. Redder than what we just saw. Because all those rural motherfuckers looked at Harris, probably the most progressive candidate we've had during my lifetime and I'm getting fucking old, looked at Trump, and they fucking chose Trump.

They. Fucking. Chose. Trump.

I don't know what those stupid motherfuckers want, but it's obviously not healthcare or a god damned economy.

[–] xtr0n@sh.itjust.works 10 points 10 hours ago

My understanding is that Trump did not outperform his 2020 returns and Harris did not outperform Biden’s 2020 returns. We didn’t get more Trump voters than pat elections, we just got fewer Democratic voters. Why was Democratic turnout so bad? Was it really because Harris was too liberal? I haven’t seen any evidence of that. I suspect that it’s because Harris isn’t very charismatic (compared to candidates like Obama or Bill Clinton). I also suspect that turnout was low because Harris was talking more about maintaining the status quo instead of talking about change. If she was more liberal then maybe more of the base would be motivated to turn out? IDK but I’m sure there will be a million think pieces on the topic 😔

[–] toomanypancakes@lemmy.world 4 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

They want the demographics they dislike to suffer. That's it, they don't give a shit about policy.

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 hours ago

I know for lots of them that's probably true. But it's not fifty percent of the country.

[–] Fosheze@lemmy.world 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

The rural republican voters were never going to vote for Harris. Her only chance was to motivate the progressives to go out and vote but instead she spit on them at every opporitunity and sprinted to the right to try and court votes she was never going to get anyways.

Just look at the votes. Trumps vote total barely changed. Harris lost more than 10 million votes for the DNC. That says nobody switched from trump to Harris but a lot of people were so disgusted with Harris that they didn't even bother to show up.

[–] MagicShel@lemmy.zip 3 points 6 hours ago

a lot of people were so disgusted with Harris that they didn't even bother to show up.

Why??? Gaza? One fucking issue out of fifty that Trump will be ten times worse on anyway? I'm not thrilled about Gaza, but now in their name, even more Gaza's will die, plus Ukrainians, our own women, trans kids, immune compromised, whomever dies as a result of NATO collapsing, whoever dies because of climate change, refugees.

And every single person who voted for Trump over the economy, I fucking guarantee if Gaza was on fire from one end to the other they wouldn't piss on it to put it out.

My wife swears up and down that rural and rural-adjacent suburban votes will simply never vote for a woman.

My son, who lives and works in Detroit, says the Muslims would rather ban abortion than pet much any other issue. The news says trump made major inroads with gen z boys.

I don't know the answer. I'm not sure anyone does. But on every single fucking issue, whatever you care about, there isn't one single issue on which Trump would be the better pick, unless you just want to fucking burn it all down. Or you're a multi multi millionaire who just wants to pay less taxes.

I have to go get started on tomorrow's hangover.

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Obama wasn't hesitate in that way, he wanted to be a neutral arbiter if there was a primary.

[–] ChillPenguin@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago

It's a good idea to arm yourself. Protect yourself and your own.

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago

This just raises the question for me about electronic voting machines. I know that 12 states are using machines with no paper trail, I wanna know if my suspicion that Wisconsin may be one of those is correct.

[–] solsangraal@lemmy.zip 43 points 11 hours ago (2 children)

how is it possible for every piece of news to keep getting worse

[–] Fosheze@lemmy.world 33 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

This isn't even news. Walz is from a deeply red area of the state. There was basically a 0% chance they went blue.

[–] would_be_appreciated@lemmy.ml 9 points 7 hours ago

Yeah, home advantage is less and less relevant every year. Once upon a time this would be news, but it's a new era and he wasn't even the presidential candidate.

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 7 points 10 hours ago

I suggest you buckle up.

[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 39 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

If people knew what Blue Earth is like, this wouldn't be surprising.

[–] JaymesRS@literature.cafe 12 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Yep, sure we’ve got Mankato, but there’s a reason he was the first democrat elected to congress in forever from CD 1.

[–] dditty@lemm.ee 2 points 11 hours ago

Yep I never thought for a second Harris-Walz would've won that district from the moment he was selected

[–] S_H_K@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Non US here can you give a recap?

[–] rockSlayer@lemmy.world 13 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

The entire southeastern corner of Minnesota is deeply conservative. As someone who grew up in Fillmore county, the only surprise from my state is that Olmsted county went blue

[–] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 12 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

I'm really wondering if there's been election interference from GOP agents. Republicans are known for projecting, so I wouldn't be surprised.

[–] Fosheze@lemmy.world 18 points 10 hours ago

This isn't election interference. Wals is from a very red county. This wasn't news for anyone from MN. It was just an easy headline.

It would have been far more newsworthy if they had voted for him.

[–] jeffw@lemmy.world 7 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

There was plenty of misinformation peddled by foreign actors(edit: and domestic ones tbh). Call that what you will

[–] gerbler@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

We're morons manipulated into voting against their interests, securing the election for Trump? Absolutely. Unfortunately though, he won the votes fair and square. Democrats sucked at messaging, voters sucked at being decent fucking humans. Now we all get to enjoy the consequences of their psychopathy.