This feels like the opposite of weird.
On Tuesday, a social media user on X, formerly Twitter, posted a clip of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz at the state fair last year with his daughter, Hope.
The video was posted on X only an hour before presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris announced that she had selected Walz as her running mate — so its timing could be viewed as a very slick PR move, accidental or not.
In the 2023 clip, Walz and Hope are being interviewed at the Minnesota State Fair by Minneapolis news channel KARE 11 in a promotional segment about the event. Walz starts the interview by explaining that his family has a yearly tradition in which they select “something old and something new” to do at the fair.
“I get to pick something, a classic, Ye Old Mill ride — we’ll do that,” Walz said of a ride that’s akin to “It’s a Small World” at Disney. “And Hope gets to pick something new.”
“I think we’re going to do the Slingshot,” Hope says after eyeing her unassuming dad.
“Which, I don’t know what it is, and they’re keeping it from me,” Walz admits in regard to the ride. “But then we’re going to get some food.”
Walz then turns to Hope and asks if she’d like to get some corn dogs after the Slingshot. She shakes her head.
“I’m vegetarian,” she reminds her dad.
“Turkey, then?” Walz responds.
“Turkey’s meat,” Hope says.
“No, in Minnesota, turkey’s special,” Walz concludes, causing his daughter to roll her eyes and laugh.
The video then cuts to Walz and Hope on the Slingshot — a ride in which people are placed in a seat attached to bouncy cables and shot into the air. In the video, Walz — decked out in a Bruce Springsteen T-shirt and jeans — screams in utter delight.
“That was so worth it!” Walz says to Hope as they get off the ride. “Good call, thanks for talking me into it.”
People on X found the video refreshingly wholesome thanks to Walz’s “Midwestern dad” energy.
The above X user’s sentiment — that it’s just nice to see a political candidate “acting normal” — harks back to when Walz coined Democrats’ “weird” moniker to refer to members of the GOP.
“These are weird people on the other side,” he said on MSNBC in July in response to Republicans’ efforts to restrict abortion rights and certain books in public libraries.