ROCHESTER — It is the question of the moment for the national Democratic Party, and it cropped up a couple times during former Democratic vice president candidate and Gov. Tim Walz’s packed town hall meeting Saturday at John Marshall High School.
How did we lose?
“How in the hell did we lose to these people with these ideas? What happened? They sided with the billionaire and the hedge fund manager over the county attorney and the public school teacher,” Walz said, referring to GOP President Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, compared to presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Walz himself.
“We have to be more forceful,” Walz said.
At this early date, it’s not clear whether the party has an answer to the question yet. Saturday’s town hall was filled with numerous standing ovations for Walz.
But intermingled with the cheering and clapping were unmistakable notes of anxiety and worry from an audience seeking to understand the upheaval unleashed by Trump’s barrage of executive orders and the dismantling of the federal bureaucracy — and how it might affect them and others.
One mother asked how she could protect her son with disabilities now that Trump has signed an executive order initiating the dismantling of the Department of Education.
A man called for the defense of Veterans Affairs, an agency serving veterans that is facing deep cutbacks under the oversight of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
Another person asked about the rights of transgender people, whom Trump has banished to non-personhood through his executive orders.
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The gathering had elements of a therapy session as much as a rallying of the base. One University of Minnesota Rochester student worried about going homeless, given her reliance on federally subsidized housing, Pell grants and other government assistance.
“I’m worried about DEI policies as (the University of Minnesota Rochester) is backing away from DEI,” she said. “Please remember my story when you fight.”
Walz has been holding town hall meetings across the Midwest — in Iowa, Nebraska, Wisconsin and his home state — in congressional districts where its Republican representatives have so far declined to hold town halls, heightening speculation that Walz is considering a run for president in 2028.
Walz said there is a reason that many Republicans are refusing to host town hall meetings: It would be difficult for them to defend what is happening in Washington, D.C. right now, he argued. He recalled facing a skeptical and an occasionally hostile crowd as a congressman when the Affordable Care Act was up for a vote. Walz voted for it.
“I was proud to defend the right to expand health care,” Walz said. “I was proud to stand on the ACA. I think it would be a lot harder for them to stand on the stage and defend cutting Medicaid, cutting our public schools, and threatening Social Security.”
An estimated 1,500 people attended the rally, a DFL official said, and an additional room in the school was opened to handle the overflow.
Walz did not brandish his phone and chortle over the plunging value of Musk’s Tesla stock, as he did at a previous town hall. But he did chide Republicans in Congress for abdicating their role as appropriators of federal dollars under the Constitution to an unelected individual. He also directed critical remarks toward his own party and its leaders for not doing enough to thwart Trump and the GOP-held Congress, despite their minority status.
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“You don’t get to say, ‘well, we’re not in the majority. We really can’t do anything.’ That’s not good enough,” Walz said.
One message that Walz struck was that the Democratic Party, while a minority party in the Capitol, is not powerless.
“As a Democratic Party, we have to understand there’s power out there. Indivisible folks are doing their own thing,” Walz said, referring to the progressive group that was born soon after Trump’s first election in 2015.
“How do we get them to see that, collectively, together — how do we build that together?” he asked.
He recalled winning the 1st Congressional District, which now leans Republican, by 33 percentage points by relying on the party local leaders and stalwarts who introduced him at events when he first ran for Congress. He argued Saturday that the national party could take a page from the DFL by returning to its origins as a party focused on labor and rural issues.
He said the Democratic Party needs to become the DFL.
“There’s a reason we have the longest streak of winning statewide elections,” Walz said. “And, look, I knew it was my job to try and kick off those other swing states, and we didn’t. I came back to lick my wounds and say, ‘at least we won here.’ And that’s not because of me. That’s because of the organization.
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“Things are happening, but it’s in flux,” he said.
The Trust Project
