Summary
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s running mate, suffered a personal setback in the 2024 election as he lost his home county, Blue Earth, to President-elect Donald Trump.
Trump won 49.6% of the vote there, while Harris received 48.3%, marking a symbolic defeat for Walz, who built his political career in the area.
Walz, a former teacher and congressman known for his moderate stance, had previously turned a Republican seat Democratic and won Minnesota’s governorship by a large margin in 2018.
His campaign faced challenges, including scrutiny over past statements about military service, which the Trump campaign leveraged as a “Stolen Valor” issue.
The entire southeastern corner of Minnesota is deeply conservative. As someone who grew up in Fillmore county, the only surprise from my state is that Olmsted county went blue