Walz to launch media blitz to woo male voters

Kamala Harris is dispatching Tim Walz to turn out male voters.

Faced with a serious polling deficit among young men, Harris’ campaign is sending the Minnesota governor on a man-focused media blitz on Friday, including football-focused TV interviews and pheasant hunting with digital influencers, according to details shared first with POLITICO.

It’ll start with a one-on-one interview with ABC Good Morning America’s Michael Strahan, a former NFL football player, at the University of Minnesota’s football stadium, airing on Friday morning. In the sitdown, the pair will discuss how Walz’s coaching career prepared him for politics and will feature some of his former students. Walz will also appear in a round of local TV interviews in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — which the campaign hopes will center on high school football and hunting. In Michigan, later on Friday, Walz will headline a voter engagement event with Black men.

Then, the governor will return to Minnesota, where he’ll deliver the pep talk to Mankato West’s football team, his former football squad, ahead of their game against rivals Mankato East. And on Saturday morning, Walz will take a group of social media influencers, including veterans advocate David Boomer and a Black rodeo star Ramontay McConnell, pheasant hunting in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota.

Walz’s folksy relatability on TV — famously tagging Republicans as “weird” — played a central role in elevating him to Harris’ running mate this summer. But since he joined the ticket, he’s appeared less frequently on the cable news circuit, drawing criticism from fellow Democrats for the campaign being too cautious.

That’s changed this week, as the Harris team ramped up its media appearances for both Harris and Walz. In the last few days, Walz appeared on Fox News’ Sunday show, sat down with ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel and appeared with Harris for a 60 Minutes interview.

But even as some Democrats had hoped Walz, a former teacher who has strong ties to labor, could help Harris connect with blue-collar voters, that hasn’t necessarily worked. Notably, the International Association of Fire Fighters declined to endorse Harris or Trump earlier this month, a snub for the Harris campaign that came as a surprise to her staffers. It may also be a challenging mission to bring over more men to Harris’ campaign, which has seen much of its strength built off of its popularity with female voters.

Harris’ advantages with women voters has grown since she launched her campaign in late July, expanding particularly with Independent women, according to public polling. She often holds a double-digit lead over Trump with women. But her deficit with men is also significant. A New York Times/Siena College poll found Trump with a 13-point lead over Harris with men nationally.