News outlet gets surprising results after surveying Tim Walz’s hometown

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A local Minnesota news outlet set out to gauge support for hometown boy Tim Walz and was stunned by the responses.

“With a hometown connection on the presidential ticket, we wondered what kind of support Walz is seeing in the final days of the race. What we found may surprise you,” Alpha News reporter Liz Collin said in a story this week.

The outlet sought responses from voters in Mankato in Blue Earth County, MN, the one-time home of the Minnesota governor and vice-presidential nominee. Walz kept his home in Mankato even after he successfully ran for Congress and he once taught at Mankato West High School.

(Video Credit: Alpha News)

But as the reporter questioned voters, she was repeatedly met with responses supporting former President Donald Trump and not the Democrat governor.

“We’re both voting for Trump. It’s really the only option,” one couple told her.

Another local said he did not vote for Trump in the last election.

“I didn’t. But I am this time,” he said.

“Despite being a historically blue county, Blue Earth County Republicans told Alpha News volunteers have handed out more signs this election cycle than ever before,” Collin reported, noting that “No Republican gubernatorial candidate has won the county since Tim Pawlenty in 2002. It’s been won by every Democratic presidential candidate since 2004, with the exception of Trump in 2016.”

Naturally, the idea of Trump pulling off a victory in a state that is run by the Democrat VP nominee and that hasn’t voted Republican in decades would be a humiliating blow to the Harris-Walz campaign. But voters who spoke with Alpha News are more concerned with pressing issues that affect them and not the politics being spewed in Democrat rhetoric.

“We’ve had a lot of activity with Trump. It just drives people to come in to get signs, just to talk, communicate, and just have a good time talking about it,” said Doug Hitzemann, the treasurer for the Blue Earth County Republicans who offered a blistering assessment of Harris and Walz.

“She’s not a strong candidate and I didn’t ever think he was a strong candidate, so I took that that she made a bad choice. Quite frankly, we’d be happy to have him not in the state of Minnesota, but I’d rather have him for two more years now and then someone else later. I don’t think he helped her ticket, let’s put it that way,” he said.

“He acts like a conservative while he’s campaigning here and the minute he gets across the river he switches to his true self,” Hitzemann said of Walz.

“I think we knew that from the Mankato area because he’s from here, but I don’t think in the state, I don’t think that got published as much as it is now with the national attention. There’s a whole lot of things that are coming out about him that we never knew,” he told Collin. “I don’t see any more interest in the Democratic ticket because of him. I don’t believe so.”

A request for a response from the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer-Labor Party was denied and the news outlet reported that a request for a statement via e-mail was also never answered.

“I don’t think he’s as well-liked here as they like to portray him. My understanding was when he showed up at the football game there was quite a few boos in the stand,” Hitzemann said of Walz. “I don’t think he was as well-respected here as they like to think.”

Other voters who were interviewed by Colling left no doubt about their view of Walz and their support of Trump.

“I don’t care for the man really, but that’s who they’ve picked,” one voter told Collin.

“We have to turn this country and this state around. This state is one of the most expensive states to live in tax-wise. We’ve got people leaving the state. That’s not good in the long run,” Hitzemann said.

One 29-year-old father reiterated how the economy has made life difficult for his family.

“Groceries are high. I mean formula is high, milk is high … it’s a big crisis right now, you know,” he said.

When asked if Walz’s Mankato connection made a difference, one local said “Not even a little bit.”

“Sh-t’s going downhill. I work hard, 60-hour weeks. I’m a roofer, 45% of my check goes to taxes,” one resident told Collin. “I’m Hispanic and they say ‘Oh, we’re here to help the Hispanics,’ but they’re sending money to Ukraine, a war that doesn’t belong to us. I’m a Republican and I believe that God is a Republican, too.”

“It’s different. Times have changed,” he added when asked about this election compared to previous ones.

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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.