MN voters decide whether to elect Tim Walz as vice president

Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz were poised to win Minnesota’s electoral votes Tuesday, but there was little to celebrate as the path to statewide victory appeared narrow.

Neither Harris-Walz nor former President Donald Trump and running mate Sen. JD Vance of Ohio spent much time campaigning in the state. Republicans had promised to turn Minnesota red for the first time since 1972, but polls consistently showed Harris-Walz holding a slim but steady lead.

Late Tuesday night, the returns looked far less promising for the Democrats.

If elected, Harris would be the first female president and Walz would be the third Minnesotan elected to the vice presidency.

Harris and Walz ran a compressed campaign when she tapped him for the ticket in early August, shortly after President Joe Biden stepped aside and just before the start of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Walz sought to join Minnesota’s favorite sons, the late Vice Presidents Walter Mondale and Hubert Humphrey, who served with former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Lyndon Johnson, respectively.

Voting in north Minneapolis on Tuesday, Joseph Thomas, 39, said he chose Harris, citing equality, housing assistance and taxes as issues he cared about most. He also liked that Harris could be the first female president: “That was a big deal, too,” he said.

At the Martin Luther King Recreation Center in St. Paul walked Kate Kulzer with her dog, a Catahoula leopard dog named Rhubarb, and dropped her fiancé off to vote about an hour before the polls closed. Kulzer had voted for Harris earlier in the day — but she considered it a vote against Trump.