Tim Walz Returns to School Where He Used to Coach Football, But Doesn’t Get Warm Welcome Democrats May Expect

If Tim Walz was hoping for a triumphal return to the high school where he used to teach and coach football back in the day, he got a much more muted response than he or the Harris-Walz campaign were likely hoping for.

In what ended up being a quiet return to Mankato West High School for their rivalry game against Mankato East, the biggest stir you saw was from voices of protest, either from the left or from the right.

According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, “Walz’s stop in Mankato is one of a series of media stops in the battleground states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where the governor is talking high school football and hunting.”

Right. Anyone old enough to remember when former President George H.W. Bush tried to convince Americans that his favorite food was pork rinds, or that time when Democratic nominee John Kerry went on a duck hunt? Totally apropos of nothing, just thought I’d bring those up.

“This is the best of America,” Walz told reporters ahead of the game. He also had some deep advice for his team: “Don’t forget to have fun, enjoy.”

“A quarter-century ago, Walz was the assistant defensive football coach for the 1999 Mankato West football team that won the state championship. That year’s crosstown rivalry game was a spark for Mankato West that season, said John Considine, a Mankato West alumnus and right tackle on that 1999 Class 4A championship team,” the Star-Tribune reported.

“It’s good to have him back,” Considine said in a pull-quote from the paper of record in Minnesota.

Do you believe Tim Walz should be VP?

That’s all they could muster. And, let me tell you, the scenes from the stands didn’t look any less lukewarm than Considine’s sentiment at having “Coach” Walz back.

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Walz-o-mania sweeps the nation! He can’t even get more than a polite reception in freaking Minnesota, where the guy has been governor since 2019. Maybe they’re all stunned because his ascension in American politics has been so sudden and unexpected.

Or maybe it’s because those with actual passion about Walz were the ones protesting his visit:

Heck, it’s not even like the pro-Hamasers can get too much into it. And while the Star-Tribune noted that “former GOP state Rep. Jeremy Munson urged people to show up and boo Walz” on social media, this was the most conservative response to Walz we saw at the game.

Now, to be fair, the Star-Tribune noted that the rivalry game was held at a neutral site and “[t]here were no political signs visible in the stands, following an edict earlier by the school district against such displays.”

That being said, I think everyone pretty much caught on to what Yvonne Simon, head of the Blue Earth County GOP, where Mankato is located, pointed out: “They’re getting desperate to get the word out,” she said, noting that the whole “coach” brand simply isn’t taking off.

Oh well. Maybe John Kerry can private jet in to do a bit of duck hunting to really drive home the point?

C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.

C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).

Birthplace

Morristown, New Jersey

Education

Catholic University of America

Languages Spoken

English, Spanish

Topics of Expertise

American Politics, World Politics, Culture

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