Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz held a fundraiser and visited a coffee shop Tuesday morning during his first solo trip to Las Vegas since becoming the Democratic nominee for vice president.
Walz spoke to a group of about 50 donors for about 15 minutes at a fundraiser hosted at a condominium complex near the Las Vegas Strip by Chris Grove, a sports betting industry investor and executive. He underscored the stakes of the election, previewed Tuesday night’s presidential debate and contrasted the outreach efforts and visions of both presidential campaigns.
Later, he visited the TIABI Coffee & Waffle shop alongside his daughter, Hope, where he spoke briefly with the shop owner and several supporters. He did not take questions from the media at either event.
Walz’s visit was his first to Las Vegas since his huge rally with Vice President Kamala Harris last month at Thomas & Mack Center, and his second stop in Nevada in as many days after touring the area near the Davis Fire in Reno on Monday. It came as part of a multistate tour in swing states and took place hours before Harris and former President Donald Trump are set to square off in their first presidential debate.
Nevada is among the handful of states that could decide the results of the presidential race, and polls show Harris and Trump in a dead heat.
Walz began his remarks at the fundraiser by reflecting on Monday’s stop in Reno by commending the “neighborliness” of community members and first responders, a term he has used often since joining the Democratic ticket. He also lauded Democratic organizers for shifting plans for his scheduled rally because of the fire.
“You don’t win elections to bank political capital to win another election. You win elections to burn political capital to improve people’s lives,” Walz said. “To see folks out there pivot on a dime to say, ‘Look, we’ve got a big election coming up, it’s super important, but right now, my neighbors are in need, and I’m going to be there for them.’”
He also briefly discussed some goals of a Harris-Walz administration, including creating an “opportunity economy,” bringing back abortion protections established under Roe v. Wade and pursuing climate change policies. Republicans have criticized the campaign for not sufficiently outlining their policy proposals, though the campaign released a policy page on its website this week.
“There’s a lot of folks in the middle,” Walz said. “We have a responsibility to tell [people] about what we’re going to do.”
He also defended his pandemic policies as Minnesota governor — which Republicans have criticized as being too stringent — and criticized Trump for his continued election denialism and indications that he will once again challenge the results of this year’s election if he loses. He said that consistent organizing could help run up the score against Trump and make it harder to challenge the results.
“The victory becomes too big for them to do their nonsense,” Walz said. “They will, by the way, they will continue to do that, but we’ll have the capacity to be able to push back on every single one.”
