Gov. Walz to ‘Kato Voters: ‘This is Our Moment’
Michael McShane ® Contributing Writer |
Photos by Mansoor Ahmad ® Photo Editor |
The governor of Minnesota made an appearance Saturday in Mankato as a final push to get young citizens out to vote in an election that is one week away.
Gov. Walz, flanked by local leaders and DFL candidates, spoke to a generally socially distanced crowd at Highland Park to speak about both the importance of voting and the consequences of voting into office people unqualified for the job.
“It’s not about our team winning, it’s not about the things that irritate us although I have to tell you I don’t spend a lot of time complaining but sometimes you have to call things out,” Gov. Walz said.
Walz’s message during his speech was that the future of the country was on the ballet come Nov. 3. With climate change and systemic racism as examples, Gov. Walz spoke through cheers from the crowd about the impact of the election.
“Our children are inheriting what we’re going to leave to them, and we have a responsibility to do better,” Gov. Walz said.
The presidential election was not sole focus of Gov. Walz speech as he then turned his attention to the more local scene.
“I need representatives who go represent their people, bring the ideas to St. Paul, work with us as partners,” Gov. Walz said.
“I’ll tell you what I don’t need – I don’t need representatives coming and telling people not to test because it’ll just increase the number of COVID cases.”
In attendance who also spoke was the wife of Dan Feehan who is running against current U.S. Representative Jim Hagadorn. The two previously faced each other in the 2018 elections where Hagadorn edged out a win against Feehan to flip the 1st District for the Republicans.
While Feehan couldn’t attend, his wife Amy Feehan, came to speak about why her husband should be voting into office next week.
“There is no one who embodies leadership like my husband,” Feehan said. Speaking on the topic of young voters, Feehan emphasized the importance of the young voter demographic. “Knowing that, if all of the young voters came out in the numbers that we have of them in this country, they could truly change the path of this country and make it what they want it to be.”
One young voter whose goal is to get as many to the voting booth next week is Chris Russert, the current president of the College Democrats at MNSU.
Russert spoke about his irritation over the overuse of divisiveness in current politics and his wish for honest change that will develop the future his generation will inherit.
“We’re facing a political climate where so many politicians and a lot of them have come to this state and stoked hatred and anger as their primary way to gain power,” Russert said. “It’s not right and it’s not the future that I want to inherit.”
With just a week left remaining until the country learns who will lead the nation for the next four years, Democrats have only a few more days remaining to push undecided voters to the blue. Even with polls showing a commanding lead by Joe Biden against President Donald Trump, Democrats such as Gov. Walz is still wary about how the election could turn out.
“We take nothing for granted, so it’s about turning out those folks now,” Gov. Walz said. “I think the dynamics are much different; pretty hard for the president to say that he’s going to change things when four years he owns the economy, he owns COVID.”
Header photo: Gov. Tim Walz speaks at the “Students for Biden” event at Highland Park, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020 in Mankato. (Mansoor Ahmad/The Reporter)