PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania — Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), the Democratic vice presidential nominee, began Tuesday in western Pennsylvania trying to earn the rural vote in Lawrence County, the exurban vote in Butler, and finally the urban vote in Pittsburgh.
Dressed in an Orvis variation of the red and black checkered flannel shirt that hunters in this region for generations have called the Pennsylvania Tuxedo, Walz also donned a camouflage cap as he began the day at the home of a former Democratic candidate for congress who owns a farm in the Amish country village of Volant.
In a setting that had all of the country appeal of a fall Hallmark movie filled with tractors, hay, and barns, Walz discussed his rural roots, then went after Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH). First he said he had no idea what a venture capitalist, Vance’s former profession, is, and then he said Vance was a “venture capitalist cosplaying as a cowboy, and I don’t know what a venture capitalist is most of the time.”
Longtime Democrat Rick Telesz hosted the event at his farm. In 2016, Telesz made news for being a Democrat who was voting for former President Donald Trump. He made news again in 2020 for going back to his ancestral roots and voting for President Joe Biden. Two years later, Telesz ran as a Democrat in a Democratic primary to challenge Rep. Michael Kelly (R-PA); he lost in that primary to Dan Pastore.
The Harris-Walz team has struggled on the most important issue in this week’s Gallup polling that showed the economy is the top issue for 90% of voters. Many voters blame Kamala Harris in her role as the vice president in an economy in which food, energy, insurance, and goods costs skyrocketed and then never came down.
Walz, however, insisted that the economy is getting better, and blamed the economy’s downturn on Trump.
“Trump’s mismanagement of COVID destroyed our supply chains, and farmers are still digging out of that hole from that and his damn tariffs that he put on,” Walz said. “It didn’t do a damn thing for rural America.”
Harris and Walz are making a pitch to ease the margins against them in this all-important state. Exit polling shows Trump won rural voters by a 2-to-1 margin in 2020 in places such as Lawrence and nearby Butler and Mercer counties.
Walz then made a very brief visit to the Bloom Café at Quality Gardens, just miles from where Trump was shot, and was greeted by a couple of dozen Trump supporters who lined up across the street from the café. Walz then headlined a rally in the hall of Acrisure Stadium, urging those in attendance to vote early.
“You don’t win the Super Bowl just on that day; you win the Super Bowl months before with the work that you do,” Walz argued.
“Hope is great, but it’s not a damn plan. We cannot hope we beat Donald Trump. We cannot hope we restore Roe v. Wade. We cannot hope that unions grow in this country. We have to make a plan to do it, and it starts with voting,” said Walz, now dressed in a navy sports jacket and white shirt.
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On Monday, Harris held a rally in Erie at the Erie Insurance Arena. Vance will be in Pittsburgh on Thursday, and Trump will hold a rally in Latrobe, then spend the next day in Pittsburgh with tentative plans to attend the Pittsburgh Steeler home game in the evening.
RealClearPolitics polling averages show Pennsylvania less than three weeks from Election Day is stubbornly holding at a statistical tie between Trump and Harris.