Tim Walz, Minnesota’s Governor and former Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate in the last presidential election, is pushing for Democrats to keep fighting for transgender rights as the party finds their way to winning again.
Speaking to The Independent, Walz is trying his best to make it clear that abandoning the nation’s transgender population will endanger not only them, but the future of the party.
“I think we have to figure out how to not get sucked in and allow that to be the focal point only, and that we can multitask, and we can hold several things simultaneously,” Walz said. “We can protect LGBTQ rights and basic human rights at the same time, we can make sure that we hold drug companies accountable for high prices.”
“It’s a mistake,” he insisted. “And here’s the thing: we need to tell people your cost of eggs, your health care being denied, your homeowner’s insurance, your lack of getting warning on tornadoes coming has nothing to do with someone’s gender.”
In the months following the election, a few members of the Democratic party have cautioned against speaking on certain talking points, such as the bans on trans athletes participating in women’s sports.
California’s Governor Gavin Newsom is one recent case. On the podcast he started earlier this year, speaking to Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk, Newsom suggested that trans competitor’s inclusion was “unfair.” Other members, such as Colin Allred, Senate candidate for the Texas seat, and Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio had backed away from their openness about supporting trans rights during their campaigns, yet both ended up losing their races.
Even after losing the election and going back to Minnesota to continue his tenure as state governor, Walz has only increased his time on the road, taking to town halls in areas represented by Republicans at a time where many were abandoning their town hall engagements.
It is at these appearances that Walz has gotten a resounding message from the nation’s constituents, and that is for the Democrats to fight back against Donald Trump and his administration.
“What I keep saying is, that Democrats’ issues that we care about are things that people do care about, improving their lives, they just don’t see them get done,” he said.“I think the one thing I’ve seen with what Donald Trump has done is this just moving so fast and on so many fronts. We need to think that same way about the things that improve people’s lives [and] making sure that we’re doing that.”