Trump's barb toward Minnesota voters might come back to bite him now that the state's governor, Tim Walz, has joined Kamala Harris' Democratic ticket

Donald Trump and Tim Walz (Getty)

 

Donald Trump's big mouth has been known to get him in trouble, and that habit might come back to bite him again now that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is Kamala  Harris' choice as a running mate in the 2024 presidential race. As we reported on Monday (8/5/24), Democratic insiders had come to see Walz as the "momentum candidate" as Harris' search moved into its final days. That might have been enough to give  Walz an edge over Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and U.S. Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona.

How did Trump's mouth get him in trouble this time? Travis Gettys, of Raw Story,  tells the roundabout tale under the headline "'I lose Minnesota, I'm never coming back': Trump comments resurface as Walz gets VP nod." Gettys writes:

Donald Trump's long-shot hopes for winning Minnesota appear to have dimmed even further with the selection of the state's Gov. Tim Walz as Kamala Harris' running mate.

The former president has been fixated on expanding the map in November's general election, and Politico resurfaced a report from May showing that Trump remains bitter that he was losing Minnesota although he campaigned there three months ago, during a break from his hush money trial, in an effort to flip the Midwestern state.

“I lose Minnesota,” he said in 2020, “I’m never coming back." Senior campaign advisers showed polling data to top donors in early May to argue that Minnesota and Virginia were two states that could be in play in November, but that seems even less likely with Walz joining the Democratic ticket after Harris replaced president Joe Biden and chose the governor as her vice presidential candidate.

“Minnesota is a blue state,” said Michael Brodkorb, a former deputy chair of the Minnesota Republican Party. “On a good day for Republicans, it can be a little bit of Vikings purple.”

No GOP presidential candidate has won the state since Richard Nixon in 1972, and no Republican has won a statewide race since Tim Pawlenty in 2006.

So, Trump's chances in the state never were great, and his smart-ass comment about Minnesota probably makes those chances even dimmer now.