‘Not bad for a football coach’: Gov. Tim Walz makes a swing through Pa. following VP debate

WEST MANCHESTER TWP., Pa. — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz ranked his own vice presidential debate performance.

“Not bad for a football coach,” Walz said to a crowd of more than 2,000 in support of Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, in an exposition hall as part of several bus tour stops around Pennsylvania on Wednesday.

Walz, the Democratic candidate for vice president, remarked on his at-times shaky debate performance Tuesday night as “civil, but spirited” with Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, former President Donald Trump’s running mate.

The “Midwest Nice” debate between Vance and Walz was closely watched with roughly one month until Election Day.

“I was speaking to the American people last night,” Walz said. “It felt especially, in that moment to me, that Sen. Vance was speaking to an audience of one,” claiming that Vance was only seeking Trump’s approval.

The Harris-Walz campaign continued its effort to run down the margins in GOP-controlled parts of Pennsylvania by speaking in York County, which voted in 2020 for Trump by 25 percentage points, or nearly 59,000 votes. Walz also visited an orchard in York County, and was scheduled to drive in the campaign bus to Reading to visit a Puerto Rican restaurant later Wednesday.

Walz’s approximately 35-minute remarks were targeted to a rural electorate, focusing on health-care costs, agriculture, and energy — in addition to the other top campaign priorities of the Harris campaign, such as protecting abortion access and more affordable housing.

Walz was joined by Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.), who grew up in York County and recollected some of his fond memories here. He compared Vance to his former opponent, celebrity physician Mehmet Oz, claiming that both of the men gave up their successful careers before deciding to “sell their souls to be all about MAGA.”

Kush Desai, the Pennsylvania spokesperson for Trump’s campaign, said Walz’s visit to the state was a “postdebate cleanup” that “isn’t going to sell Pennsylvanians on another four years of rising prices, open borders, and disaster on the world stage.”

For Doug Bower, a Lansdale retiree who worked as an electrical engineer and now volunteers for the Harris campaign, Walz’s performance was exactly what he expected: a little hesitant and not picture-perfect.

“[It] proved to me he’s a normal person,” Bower said. “Yeah, he stopped a couple times to think about what he was saying, which is normal.”

Amy Klinedinst, 50, of Springettsbury Township in York County, arrived at 7 a.m. with her daughter to the York Fairgrounds to see Walz speak. But that didn’t stop her from staying up late to watch “every minute” of the debate. Vance had more experience in a debate setting, she said.

But she said she got more specific policy details from Walz, noting the Democrats’ plans to support abortion access as a top concern for her.

“I thought he did great,” Klinedinst added. “It was such a stark contrast between the two candidates on the stage last night. And I really hope that people who are still undecided, after last night, can make a decision in the Harris-Walz’s favor.”

And her 14-year-old daughter had hopes for the future.

“Hopefully in the next election, I will get to vote for Kamala for my first-ever vote,” Ava Klinedinst said, who will be eligible to vote in the 2028 presidential election.