From the raucous, jam-packed floor of the Democratic National Convention, Greg Hansen flashed back 19 years to a Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor party dinner where he and his dad happened to sit down next to "two very cool teachers from Mankato."
|
| A staunch pro-union governor, Tim Walz regularly meets with members during their trips to the state Capitol in St. Paul to lobby legislators on critical IBEW issues.
|
|
| Gov. Tim Walz speaks at Minneapolis Local 292 in 2022, one of his many visits to IBEW locals around the state.
|
Tim and Gwen Walz turned out to be lively seatmates, as the Minneapolis Local 292 father and son discussed on the way home.
"I remember saying, 'That guy really had a lot of good ideas about how we could take [GOP incumbent] Gil Gutknecht out of Congress," Hansen recalled. "And I'll be damned if a year later he didn't do it."
Mick Hansen, president of Local 292 in the 1990s, wouldn’t live to see Walz become the Democratic candidate for vice president of the United States. But his son watched with enough awe for both of them as their friend accepted the party’s nomination in August.
"The guy we saw on stage that night, the guy the world saw, that's the Tim Walz that those of us in Minnesota have known forever," said Hansen, an electrician and IBEW steward at the Minnesota Star Tribune. "He's a regular working-class guy who loves Springsteen, never misses the state fair and likes to hunt pheasant. He's one of us."
Fellow IBEW members say Walz's Midwestern values, modesty and generous spirit never waver, no matter which hat he's wearing — social studies teacher, football coach, union member, family man, congressman and now Minnesota's popular governor.
"He's been a brother to us for many years," said Andy Snope, Local 292 legislative and political director. "Even in as high an office as vice president, we know that he'll still have our backs."
He and others said Walz exudes warmth toward the IBEW, whether he's speaking at union halls, hosting members on Capitol lobby days, or dropping by picnics and parties, sometimes with Gwen and their children.
A past member of the American Federation of Teachers, Walz has joined workers on picket lines and earned a near-perfect score from the AFL-CIO as a congressman. He is receiving a flood of support from former students who fondly remember his social studies classes, hailing hail him as a creative, caring and life-changing educator, with the same kind of accolades coming from players he coached as West Mankato High School’s defensive coordinator.
As governor since 2019, he has signed historic pro-worker bills, including a job-creating $2.6 billion infrastructure package, the largest in state history. Other new laws raised the minimum wage, require paid sick days and family leave, bar anti-union captive audience meetings, improve worker safety, bolster apprenticeships, and expand the scope of prevailing wage and project labor agreements.
"Everything that we've tried to do or wanted to accomplish in the building trades, he's had an open ear for us," St. Paul Local 110 President Logan Beere said. "Some states have governors who are actively trying to tear down unions. We have a governor who puts our issues on the front burner."
Beere first saw Walz speak at a Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party caucus in 2018. (The DFL is Minnesota's Democratic Party.)
"He came in, and he just started rolling. It was like 'Whoa! Who is this?'" Beere said. "He's an intense, passionate speaker, and he was talking about middle-class issues in a passionate way. Hearing and seeing that was so inspiring."
Simply put, IBEW members say, Walz is authentic.
"Tim and Gwen and their family are concerned about the same things we are," Hansen said. "They just put one kid through college, and they're about to send another. They sit around the table and have budget conversations. When they moved into the governor's mansion, they sold their home in Mankato to save money."
Walz's U.S. House win in 2006 shook up the deep-red 1st Congressional District, which had elected only one other Democrat in more than a century. Rochester Local 343 was the first union to endorse him.
"He came and spoke at an informational meeting for our electricians who were building the Mankato Energy Center," said John Swanson, the local’s political coordinator. "There was an instant connection, just the way he spoke to us. It was clear he understood us in a way few politicians do."
Walz’s bonds with Local 343 grew ever stronger during his 12 years representing the House district, which spans the south end of Minnesota and encompasses the local’s offices in Mankato and Rochester.
“Anything the union invites him to, he makes it fit his schedule,” Business Manager Steve Cardell said. “He’s a person that when you talk to him, he looks you right in the eye, and he talks to your heart, like a dad or a coach.”
Swanson, the DFL’s vice chair in the 1st District, and Hansen, who chairs the 4th District, attended the Democratic convention as party delegates. They found themselves magnets for reporters and anyone else curious about a man most Americans had never heard of a few weeks earlier.
"They were excited to hear our stories," Swanson said. "The day of his acceptance speech, there was so much electricity in the air and we were surrounded by media. It was an unbelievable experience."
Thrilled by the speech, the Minnesota delegation celebrated until getting the boot. “A bunch of us stayed on the floor, chanting and whooping it up,” Hansen said. “They literally shut the lights off on us so that we would leave. That’s the level of excitement that we had.”
Only three weeks earlier, speculation about Vice President Kamala Harris' choice of running mate was rampant. Despite a deep bench of governors, lawmakers and Cabinet secretaries, Hansen had a good feeling.
"Everyone had a reason why a candidate checked this box or that box, and I'm at, 'If I were a betting man, my money would be on Walz,'" he said. "First he was on a list of 12 and then a list of six and then it was three, and we're all looking at each other going 'This is really going to freaking happen!'"
Ever since, Walz has been packing rallies with cheering fans and charming voters at roadside diners, ball games and other whistle stops.
"I feel like he’s Minnesota’s gift to the nation right now,” Hansen said. “As people continue to get to know him, especially working-class folk like us, they're really going to like him. He's a guy who speaks our language, who's happiest wearing a camouflage hat, a T-shirt and pair of jeans. Who can't relate to that?”