If anybody asks, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota has an endorsement within the Republican presidential contest — his Red River neighbor, Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota.
“I’m not a Republican, I’m not going to vote in the Republican primary, but if I did I’d vote for him,” Mr. Walz mentioned as Mr. Burgum addressed a small and never terribly rapt viewers on the Iowa State Fair’s political soapbox.
The Walz endorsement — he’s a Democrat — in all probability received’t do a lot for Mr. Burgum in Iowa’s Republican caucuses. Mr. Walz got here to the honest to tout his celebration’s insurance policies and promote President Biden’s re-election marketing campaign amid the thicket of Republican White House hopefuls who goal to knock Mr. Biden out of the Oval Office.
During a tour of the honest’s halfway, Mr. Walz ticked by all the same old Biden marketing campaign speaking factors, mentioned how Minnesota’s state honest is superior to Iowa’s (“There’s no shame in being second,” he mentioned), puzzled if anybody would heckle former Vice President Mike Pence throughout his look Thursday afternoon and chowed down on a pork chop on a stick.
With an entourage that included Rita Hart, the Iowa Democratic Party chair, and Sarah Trone Garriott, a state senator from West Des Moines, Mr. Walz mentioned he seen the political happenings right here with the curiosity of a primary timer, questioning why Mr. Burgum hadn’t accomplished extra to prepare supporters to listen to him communicate and confessing that he doesn’t imagine any of the dozen Republican rivals to former President Donald J. Trump will emerge because the G.O.P. nominee.
“There’s no doubt in my mind whatsoever,” that Mr. Trump would be the Republican presidential nominee, Mr. Walz mentioned.
So what did he suppose the remainder of the Republicans have been doing making successive pilgrimages to the state honest to sweat by a weekend of fried meals?
“It’s hard to tell,” he mentioned. “That’s what I’m here to watch and see.”
Source: www.nytimes.com