JUST IN: Trump Flips Tim Walz’s Home County

A spate of swing state counties voting for President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday veered into deep-blue territory that included the home of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate.

Blue Earth County, whose population consists of approximately 70,000 rural voters, flipped from blue to red Tuesday night as Trump delivered a forceful rebuke of the progressive governor on his home turf. With more than 95% of votes reported, President Trump notched 18,002 votes to Vice President Kamala Harris’s 17,558, or 49.6% to 48.3%, the New York Times reported. The result is an embarrassing one for Walz, the born and bred Minnesotan who went from Democratic backbencher to unlikely running mate in the span of weeks.

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The county was one of many won by President Joe Biden in 2020 only to swing away from Democrats four years later. Walz was selected by the Harris camp in part based on their belief in his ability to deliver white, blue-collar voters who feel disenfranchised by the party’s urban, highly educated leadership. Viral videos of Walz working on his truck and talking about his love of “white guy tacos” were blatant appeals to the demographic which fell flat Tuesday night. Walz, who was reelected in 2022, will now return home to finish the remainder of his four-year term.

NEW: Donald Trump flipped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's home county of Blue Earth from blue to red, won by Biden in 2020 and now by Trump

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) November 6, 2024

The Trump campaign made a similar flip in Duval County, Florida, which Biden narrowly carried four years earlier, as well as Maricopa County, Arizona, the site of the contentious 2020 recount efforts. Both bellwether counties went to Trump this time around, signifying his ability to persuade suburban and rural swing voters with his message of affordability, decreased illegal immigration, and an end to foreign wars. In the end, Walz was unable to deliver much for Harris — the “blue wall” failed to stop Trump from carrying Pennsylvania and almost certainly Wisconsin. In Michigan, Trump leads 50% to 48% with over 95% of votes counted. Even in Minnesota, the home of ultra-progressive lawmakers like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), the Republican was able to make things competitive: He finished only 4% behind Harris in a state that was predicted to go her way by 7 points or more heading into Election Day.

A reckoning will now begin within the Democratic Party about what might have been if Harris selected Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a popular two-term Democrat who was sidelined because of his Jewish heritage. Rather than accepting the political strength that would have come with nominating the top executive of 2024’s ultimate swing state, Harris instead avoided the issue in a bid to cater to anti-Israel progressives, many of whom live in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan and chose to blank their ballots anyway. The scene among Harris supporters leaving her election night party was bleak: teary-eyed young people streamed from the grounds in a zombie-like fugue. At Mar-a-Lago, President Trump congratulated his running mate, Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, and remarked on the “unity” he brought to America by cobbling together the “most diverse” coalition of voters in modern times.

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