At Keith Ellison’s Annual Labor Day picnic, every Democratic Farm and Labor (DFL, that’s how we roll here in Minnesota) politician in Minnesota attends, speaks and works the crowd. After Gov. Tim Walz spoke at the 2022 event, my lovely bride, Lori, made a beeline for him. Lori was then a candidate for the Minneapolis School Board, which she handily won.
While Lori spoke with Walz, he did something I had never seen a politician do. He didn’t look through her as a means to an end.
He saw her as a human being, asked her questions and smiled when she told him why she was running for school board. He gave her a high five and a hug and posed for a picture.
He actually posed for five pictures, as I kept taking terrible pictures.
Governor Walz had me in tears because he saw and recognized the wonderfulness that is my wife, Lori. Do you need to know anything more about Tim Walz?
I didn’t start out as a Tim Walz fan. It took me a while to get there. When he ran for Governor of Minnesota in the 2018 DFL primary, I supported state Senator Erin Murphy.
I was skeptical that the congressman from southern Minnesota was up to the task of leading the North Star state. You may have the same feelings about him as the Vice President. If so, allow me to assuage your anxiety.
As I saw appointments, from Lt. Gov. Peggy Flannagan, who will become Minnesota’s first Native American governor when he resigns, to his cabinet choices, especially Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Transportation Commissioner, I became a fan.
He won me over by defending a woman’s right to choose. He won me over for his support for my LGBTQIA+ siblings.
He won me over for his commitment to clean energy and expanding public transportation. He won me over for his dad jokes.
He won me over when he adopted Scout, a rescue Lab mix puppy. He won me over with his plaid shirts and restoring a truck on the governor’s mansion driveway on the weekends.
He won me over when his Lutheran pastor told me that he regularly attends church, a Reconciling in Christ ELCA congregation in St. Paul. He won me over by taking budget surpluses and directing them to pay for free lunches for all at public schools and increases in teacher pay.
He won me over for his willingness to have difficult conversations on race and equity. He won me over for how he led the state during the height of the pandemic, with science and calm rationality.
He won me over with his plainspokenness.
I don’t agree with every policy and decision of the Walz administration, such as his endorsement of Line 3, an oil pipeline in the northern part of the state. I wish Minnesota led the nation in police reform and ending homelessness. Nevertheless, I have a governor who will stay in the room and listen to critical voices.
I grew up in a small town in West Virginia. The only adults who challenged the racism of my youth were my social studies teacher, Pat Fennimore, and my football coach, Stan Smith. Not my family, not my Sunday School teachers and certainly not my pastors.
Mr. Fennimore and Coach Smith did not take their positions to form young hearts and minds for granted. They cared about who we were and who we would become.
Any time anyone said something racist, Mr. Fennimore called them out and challenged them on the spot. Any time Coach Smith heard a racist remark, he would run you until you couldn’t stand.
I share this because when Tim Walz was a high school social studies teacher and football coach at Mankato West, he agreed to be the faculty advisor for the school’s first gay-straight alliance. Not many football coaches are willing to take that kind of stand in rural Minnesota.
In choosing her vice presidential pick, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is showing us that she wants to get things done in America and move toward a positive, healthy, and flourishing future. She is also showing us that she wants to shape the hearts and minds of America in a caring, compassionate, and community-minded way.
Travis Norvell is the pastor at Judson Memorial Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
