Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks during a town hall on March 14, 2025, in Des Moines, Iowa.
Columbia, South Carolina – Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is urging Democrats to abandon what he sees as overly cautious politics in favor of a more aggressive, combative approach—particularly when it comes to confronting former President Donald Trump.
Speaking at the South Carolina Democratic Party’s annual convention in Columbia, Walz delivered a fiery speech calling on fellow Democrats to “be a little meaner” and take cues from Trump’s personal playbook. The former vice presidential nominee made clear that he believes the party must stop playing defense and begin countering Trump and the Republican Party with equal force.
“Maybe it’s time for us to be a little more fierce because we have to ferociously push back on this,” Walz said, drawing applause from the crowd. “When it’s a bully like Donald Trump, you bully the s— out of him.”
Walz, who ran alongside former Vice President Kamala Harris on the 2024 Democratic ticket, acknowledged the challenges the party faces in the wake of their loss to Trump and his running mate, Vice President JD Vance. Referring to a comment from a political researcher, Walz compared Democrats’ post-election behavior to “a deer in car headlights.”
“You see the car coming at you, but you go ahead and stand there and get hit by it anyway,” he said. “Nobody votes for roadkill.”
The governor also offered a broader critique of the Democratic Party’s messaging, suggesting it has drifted from its core mission of advocating for working-class Americans. According to Walz, that failure helped pave the way for Trump’s return to power.
“We lost to a grifter billionaire giving tax cuts to his grifter billionaire buddies,” Walz said, positioning the party’s defeat as a failure to clearly define itself on economic grounds.
While Walz has not formally announced any plans to run for president in 2028, he has kept a high national profile. In addition to his convention appearances, Walz has headlined town halls in battleground states and campaigned in traditionally Republican districts where Democrats narrowly lost in 2024. In March, he told The New Yorker he would “certainly consider” a White House bid if he believed he had something unique to offer.
