Tim Walz lost to Trump in his home county in Minnesota

Trump may not have won Minnesota's electoral college votes, but he did win 49.6 percent of the vote in the state’s Blue Earth County, where Walz spent 20 years before becoming governor. Vice President Kamala Harris received 48.3 percent of the vote, The New York Post noted.

President Joe Biden managed to get 51 percent of the vote in 2020 when he was the Democratic presidential candidate while Trump received 46.5 percent, according to Politico. Walz is originally from Nebraska but came to Blue Earth County when he worked as a social studies teacher and football coach at Mankato West High School.

He decided to enter politics in 2006 as a Democrat and beat the incumbent Republican representative in Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District and settled down to 12 years of Congressional politics. Walz moved up to governor in 2018 and won handily.

Harris won Minnesota’s 10 Electoral College votes but the state was never on the to-do list for Trump or the Republicans and he didn’t need it to declare victory early Wednesday morning. The state hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate in over half a century. The last time the state was red was when voters supported President Richard Nixon in 1972 in his massive landslide against Sen. George McGovern (D-SD).

Walz was optimistic about victory throughout the campaign and though his enthusiasm never faltered, he began to express some degree of realism late in the race. Speaking to Democrats just days before the election, Walz revealed that he thought it would be a close race. “Momentum is on our side, but we take nothing for granted,” he said.

The governor did not have an easy run for office, not engaging well with critics or with the media. He was also castigated for lying about his military career and for his adoration of Maoist China as a young teacher.