Walz, Buttigieg step up debate prep in Minneapolis

Gov. Tim Walz is planning another stint of debate prep Tuesday in Minneapolis with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg along to play Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio.), just days before Vance and Walz face off in what may be the final debate before November.

Walz and Buttigieg will meet this afternoon in Minneapolis, according to two people familiar with the matter who were granted anonymity to discuss it. Walz is also holding a campaign fundraiser in the Minneapolis area on Tuesday.

Several Democrats have suggested Walz could finish debate prep and make campaign appearances from a base in Pennsylvania or in an endangered House Republicans’ seat in New York in the final days before next Tuesday’s debate.

A Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson declined to comment on the latest prep session, saying only that the debate will present a “clear opportunity” for Walz to contrast Vice President Kamala Harris’ vision for the country with former President Donald Trump’s. Buttigieg is acting in his personal capacity as he preps Walz for the high-stakes meeting.

Buttigieg recently told The New York Times’ Ezra Klein that he’s trying to focus on Vance’s “faux populism” and other traits as he stands in for the Ohio Republican in Walz’s debate preparations. For weeks, Walz and Vance have exchanged fierce and increasingly personal barbs on the campaign trail, but the two men have never met in person.

Vance has called Walz a serial “liar.” The Minnesota governor, in turn, attacked Vance this past weekend in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania as an out of touch “venture capitalist” who got a MAGA rally crowd to boo for the Federal Reserve lowering interest rates.

Biden White House alumni Rob Friedlander and Zayn Siddique are running Walz’s debate prep.

House Republican Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), a fierce Walz critic, has been reviewing tape of Walz’s past debates in order to copy his mannerisms as he stands in for Walz in Vance’s debate prep.

Walz spent Monday at a trio of campaign fundraisers in New York, including one at the home of Alex Soros and Huma Abedin. The events were expected to raise $4 million to $5 million total for the campaign, according to two people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly. Walz ended his evening at a climate-themed fundraiser in Brooklyn where he was introduced by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

In his remarks, Walz nodded to the one Nebraska state senator who on Monday appeared to thwart Republican efforts to turn the state into a winner-take-all Electoral College vote that would benefit Trump.

“We live in a world with a damn Electoral College and what it is. But I will say that for all of you are here: Thank God for that one guy out in Omaha,” Walz told the crowd, according to pool reporters in the room.