MSNBC data guru delivers brutal reality check to Dems after Walz selection

MSNBC data reporter Steve Kornacki said Tuesday that Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota may not be able to move the needle in key states as the party's vice presidential nominee.

Vice President Kamala Harris chosen Walz will be his running mate Tuesday morning, edging out Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. Kornacki said during an appearance on “Ana Cabrera Reports” that Walz's 2022 re-election victory was similar to how President Joe Biden carried Minnesota in 2020.

“When you look at what Tim Walz actually accomplished to get elected, to get re-elected in 2022, he's the model for Biden, demographically, regionally,” Kornacki told host Ana Cabrera. “You go county by county, there's not a lot of difference between how Walz did and how Biden did. Walz did big numbers, look at this, this is the largest county in the state, Hennepin County, Minneapolis. Walz got big numbers, Biden got big numbers.

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'You don't quite see it': MSNBC Data Guru Gives Dems Brutal Reality Check After Walz Pick pic.twitter.com/J020ClHAtw

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 6, 2024

“Now, go to great Minnesota, let's take a look at Stearns County here. Look, Walz lost this by 23 points. Why did Biden lose it? 23 points. And that's the kind of county, by the way, in Minnesota and in the Midwest here, which Democrats are hoping Walz will help them with,” Kornacki continued. “Look, we're going back in time here. Once upon a time, just a dozen years ago, Democrats weren't winning a county like this, but lo and behold, Barack Obama got 43% of the vote here, basically just over 10 points behind Mitt Romney. Obama was able to do it in a county like Stearns, and he was able to do it in counties like this across the Midwest: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania.”

Harris leads Trump by 0.2% in a national head-to-head showdown, seconds in the Real Clear Polling average from July 22 to August 4, with Harris increasing his lead to 0.4% when Green Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein and independent presidential candidates Cornel West and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are included in the surveys.

“You see that fell off the cliff for the Democrats with Clinton, with Biden and there's Walz, his account in this county, right between where Biden and Clinton were,” Kornacki said. “So a Walz win in 2022 looks like what is now a standard Democratic win in Minnesota: heavy reliance on the Twin Cities metro area and heavy losses in greater Minnesota.”

“The Democrats' hope is that he'll appeal to the blue-collar areas of those other three states, maybe he will, but when you look at what he's done in Minnesota, you don't quite see that,” Kornacki said.

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