Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota and former vice presidential candidate, couldn’t name someone when asked who the leader of the Democratic party is.
Walz appeared on CNN’s The Arena with Kasie Hunt Wednesday to discuss President Donald Trump’s joint congressional address. Hunt asked the governor who he thinks is the Democratic leader right now.
The 60-year-old Democrat paused for a few beats before answering.
“I think the voting public, right now, is what I would say,” Walz responded. “We’re not going to have a charismatic leader ride in and save us from this.”
Hunt followed up by asking if Walz sees anyone who could “be a national Democratic figure?”
“I see a whole lot of them,” Walz said. “I see young members of Congress stepping up, I see folks out there, I see it out here, state senators, state legislators, folks that are getting ready. Labor union members who are out there talking. I think the thing we need to do is: We can’t cede the space. If Donald Trump’s going to be out there…we have to be there every day.”
“We need to be better organized. There is going to be an organic uprising which we’re seeing.”
When Hunt asked if former Vice President Kamala Harris could be that future leader, Walz responded: “I certainly think she could be.”
Walz isn’t the first to contend with this question. Since Harris’s loss last Election Day, Democratic lawmakers have expressed discontent with their party’s leadership — or lack thereof.
“There’s no one, certainly, that the party, I would argue, looks to, or feels led by, or inspired by, is the truth,” former Democratic Representative Dean Phillips told The Hill last month. “Any organization — business, for-profit, nonprofit, political party — that lacks spirited leadership is going to suffer. And I think you can count us among those organizations right now. There’s just no question.”
A new poll from the liberal firm Blueprint first obtained by Politico also indicates 40 percent of voters believe that Democrats do not have any strategy for combatting the Trump administration.
That division was made clear when Democrats had a variety of responses to Trump’s joint congressional address on Tuesday. Many silently listened, others walked out and some wore pink in protest. Representative Al Green, a Democrat from Texas, was even removed from the chamber for repeatedly interrupting Trump at the beginning of the address.
“Last night I stood up for those who need Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security. Democrats will never abandon the fight to make sure every American has a safe, healthy, and financially secure life. #ISaidWhatISaid,” Green wrote on X on Wednesday night.
Green’s fellow lawmakers voted to censure him on Thursday. Nearly every Republican and 10 Democrats voted in favor of the resolution.
