Tim Walz Has Been a Disaster for Minnesotans | Opinion (2025)

Although Tim Walz is lauded as a champion for blue-collar America; a whip-smart social studies teacher in Mankato, Minnesota; and a dutiful member of Congress who voted faithfully on moderate legislation, the truth is that as governor of Minnesota, Walz has governed as a radical tyrant.

On immigration, crime, and education, Walz is considerably to the Left of not only the average American, but the average elected Democrat. He is the vice-presidential pick of the radical Left.

The Minnesota I remember from my childhood is no more. The state was home to 25 percent of all ISIS recruits in the United States, largely due to the deluge of immigrants from Somalia—it is now the largest Somali community outside Somalia itself. Despite the subsequent increase in terrorist recruitment, carjackings, and the informal renaming of an entire neighborhood in Minneapolis as "Little Mogadishu," Walz says the flood must continue. "Refugees strengthen our communities," he said in 2019. "The inn is not full in Minnesota."

Under Walz's tenure, Minnesota has become a war zone. Once heralded as one of the least crime-ridden states in the nation, violent homicides in Minnesota are now up 71 percent. Carjackings in Minneapolis are up 548 percent.

Lest anyone forget about the "mostly peaceful" George Floyd riots in 2020, here's a reminder of what those looked like: police precincts burned to the ground, hard-earned business destroyed, and unprecedented violence—that is Tim Walz's public safety legacy in Minnesota.

Those images don't even take into account Walz's support of the radical Minnesota Freedom Fund, from which he's appointed employees to the State Sentencing Commission. It's worth noting that Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has also publicly supported and raised money for the Minnesota Freedom Fund.

The fund became a national topic of conversation thanks to Harris' support. It has paid tens of millions of dollars in cash bail for violent criminals, many of whom are repeat offenders.

The organization has freed freeing violent criminals, including a man who said he wants to rape children and domestic abuser who used his newfound freedom to commit homicide in an unrelated road-rage incident.

Harris and Walz, who have both supported the "Defund the Police" movement in local and national media, are the most radical presidential ticket on crime and policing in recent history. Their election would make America less safe abroad and, more importantly, at home.

Not only has Minnesota been less safe under Tim Walz, it's been less educated. Under his leadership, less than half of all Minnesota students are able to read proficiently, while the achievement gap between white and non-white students has continued to widen. In fact, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, more than 70 percent of black students in the state are not proficient in reading. Minnesota continues to double down on educational strategies that focus on "diversity, equity, and inclusion" while actively making education worse for everyone in the state.

Walz is also facing allegations that his military record is not as stellar as his media profiles suggest. In 2018, two retired Command Sergeant Majors for the Minnesota National Guard, Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr, claimed that, in early 2005, Walz was notified to prepare for a deployment with his battalion to Iraq. On May 16 of that year, according to Behrends and Herr, Walz quit, leaving his battalion hanging as brave Minnesotans from across the state prepared to go to war for their country. Walz's battalion ended up serving in Iraq for 22 months.

Many in the establishment media and political class are wooed by Governor Walz's persona. Ezra Klein called him a "Midwestern Dad," former congressman Tim Ryan said that Walz was the "winning choice," and he's lauded as a faithful "former teacher."

But the reality is that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are the most radical Democratic presidential ticket in modern American history. On all issues that matter to everyday Americans—immigration, crime, education, and foreign policy—they are regime ideologues actively seeking to destabilize our great nation.

The election of a Harris/Walz ticket would spell an end to America's days of glory. There could not be a starker contrast between it and the Trump/Vance ticket. President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance (R-Ohio) champion border security, condemn political violence while supporting law enforcement, and oppose the DEI and woke insanity infecting our schools.

As a native Minnesotan, I have never been more ashamed of the mediocrity of the ruling elites we send to Washington, D.C. Voters—from Minnesota and the rest of the nation—must reject them. Fortunately, they will have an alternative in November: one that will indeed "make America great again."

Nick Solheim is the Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer at American Moment. He grew up in Minnesota.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.