LA VISTA — Native Nebraskan Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor tapped this month as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, celebrated his first home-state rally Saturday by filling a suburban Sarpy County concert venue and its overflow amphitheater.

The rally emphasized his Nebraska roots, including his time as a teacher and coach in Alliance, Nebraska. His wife, Gwen, and one of his former geography students, Aubrianna Faustman, introduced him.

Walz was born in West Point, grew up in Valentine and graduated from high school in Butte. He got a warm reception from the largely Democratic audience. 

Walz talks teaching

Hundreds of people lined up for hours around much of the La Vista City Centre entertainment district near 84th and Harrison Streets before the mid-afternoon event. More than 2,400 were inside the venue, with thousands more waiting and watching outside.

Walz taught in Nebraska, as did his wife, a native Minnesotan, before they moved to Mankato, Minnesota in 1996. He joked that he is caught between Husker football fandom and representing the Gophers.

The Walzes spent much of their talk discussing how the Harris-Walz team is prioritizing public education and economic opportunities for all children. He pushed back against GOP criticism of public education, drawing cheers.

“Wow. Well, hello, Nebraska,” he said, smiling and pointing to the crowd. “I have to admit it feels pretty good to be back home. Things got pretty exciting … over the last 10 days.” 

Runza fight

Walz, 60, sharpened his elbows for former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance. Vance will visit Nebraska next week for a fundraiser and might also host a public event. Walz told the crowd not to be fooled by a Yale philosopher who’s backed by venture capital.

“You think J.D. Vance knows one damn thing about Nebraska?” Walz asked the laughing crowd. “You think he’s ever had a Runza. That guy would call it a Hot Pocket. You know it.”

A Runza, for the uninitiated, is a German-style meat and cabbage sandwich sold by a Nebraska-based hamburger chain of the same name. Walz’s caravan stopped at a Runza restaurant, at 77th and L Streets on his way out of town, someone in the caravan shared with the Examiner.

Walz also ducked outside the rally venue to greet and wave to the people who couldn’t get in.

Values from his roots

He spent much of his speech focused on the values he said he learned in north-central and western Nebraska, saying that he still doesn’t know the politics of a group of his friends from high school, but they are there for one another when needed.

Faustman, the former student who helped introduce him, said when Harris selected Walz as her running mate, she told her husband that she couldn’t wait for the rest of the country to get to know him, because he is “just a good decent human being.”

She and others who spoke, including Walz, contrasted the Harris-Walz stance on reproductive freedom with the views held by Trump and Vance. Faustman and Walz spoke about their families’ challenges with needing fertility treatments and how they didn’t want to see political restrictions on IVF. 

Walz worked out the latest version of his stump speech, in which he called Republicans “weird” for sticking their noses into people’s private exam rooms and libraries and bedrooms. He criticized them for trying to overturn elections.

“Yes, it’s weird,” Walz said. “But it’s much worse than that. It’s dangerous.”

Military criticisms

Walz appeared to address some of the GOP criticism he has faced about when he ended his his 24-year career in the Nebraska and Minnesota National Guard. His unit deployed to Iraq shortly after he retired in 2005 to run for Congress. Many who served with him have defended his retirement.

He said he signed up for the Guard after high school graduation and loved his time in service. He called serving a “privilege” and said “the Guard gave me a lot,” including a purpose, as well as the ability to use the GI Bill to attend Chadron State College.

Vance and others have criticized Walz, the highest-ranking enlisted man to serve in Congress. Vance served in the Marine Corps and was deployed as a combat correspondent, or military journalist. He has accused Walz of misrepresenting his own time in the service, which Walz denies.

Presidential stakes in Omaha

Walz’s visit Saturday to La Vista, which sits on the border of the 1st and 2nd Congressional Districts in the Omaha area — on the second weekend after joining the Harris campaign — hints at the importance of the 2nd District to the broader presidential race.

A single swing-district vote matters in Republican-heavy Nebraska. Nebraska and Maine are unique nationally in awarding a single Electoral College vote to the winner of the presidential popular vote in each congressional district.

Democrats are trying to win a second-straight stray Electoral College vote in the 2nd District. Former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, won the vote in 2008, followed by Republican Mitt Romney in 2012, Trump in 2016 and Democratic President Joe Biden n 2020. 

Gov. Jim Pillen and Republicans in the officially nonpartisan Nebraska Legislature, with urging from Trump and his campaign, have been trying to get state lawmakers to shift the Republican-leaning state to winner-take-all yet this year. 

Thus far they lack the votes to change the process this close to an election. A top Maine state lawmaker has said Maine would act if Nebraska games the system to favor a single candidate. One electoral vote could matter in a close race.

Energy campaign 

The question this fall in NE-02 is whether Democrats can harness the energy of a resurgent campaign in the wake of Biden dropping out, or whether Trump will regain momentum in the districts. 

Nebraska Democrats have celebrated Walz being Harris’ running mate by amplifying his ties to rural Nebraska, his ability to make progressive policies more approachable and the importance of adding a Midwestern voice to the ticket.

Jane Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party, said the goal of the rally was to motivate and sign up volunteers to knock on voters’ doors, make calls and text them and make sure to “defeat Donald Trump once and for all.”

Republicans weigh in

The Nebraska Republican Party had no immediate comment. A spokeswoman said they were in the middle of a state central committee meeting and would reply soon.

“Tim Walz and Kamala Harris do not represent the commonsense, Midwestern values of those in the Cornhusker State,” said Liz Huston, a regional spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign. She said Nebraskans will re-elect Trump.

“Just like Harris, Walz is dangerously liberal and a champion for the Harris-Biden agenda that has burdened Nebraska families with high prices, higher taxes, and made communities less safe,” Huston said in a statement to the Examiner. 

The fight for Congress

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Preston Love Jr., who has spent years organizing voters in North Omaha, said that the presidential race would be close in the 2nd District but that Harris would win and that she is “up to this fight.” 

Democratic State Sen. Tony Vargas of Omaha, who is running a repeat race against Republican U.S. Rep. Don Bacon in the 2nd District, drew some of the event’s loudest chants when he stepped on stage. He said he would fight for Nebraskans’ economic and reproductive freedom.

Vargas, who represents South Omaha in the Legislature, said his immigrant parents had provided him and his siblings with “the American dream” by securing union jobs that paid wages significant enough to let their children be the first in their family to attend college. 

Like Walz, Vargas emphasized his time teaching, which he said helped show him the importance of public service. He previously served on the Omaha Public Schools board and is term-limited from running again for the Legislature.

“I believe Nebraskans deserve someone in Washington who puts people over politics,” Vargas said. “I will work every day for working families. I will fight to protect reproductive freedom and to … keep our communities … safe from gun violence.”

House rematch

Bacon, in a campaign statement, criticized Vargas for endorsing Harris and Walz, which he called “the most left-wing ticket in U.S. history.” Bacon, who has endorsed Trump three times, said Nebraskans don’t want Harris or her policies.

“Tim Walz and Tony Vargas are both tax and spend, defund the police, and open borders liberals,” Bacon said. “I’ll keep working as the most effective and bipartisan Republican in Congress.”

Vargas said he was excited to spend the next 85 days working, organizing and talking to flip the 2nd District House seat, to help Democrats regain control of the House and to help Harris and Walz win the White House.

“I’m so excited, because I get to join these two next year in Washington, D.C.,” Vargas said.

Other highlights

Other attendees included former U.S. Sen. and Nebraska Gov. Ben Nelson, a Walz friend; Lincoln Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird, the state’s highest-profile elected Democrat; and national gun control activist David Hogg, in town for another event.

Omaha singer Jayde Dorsey, 12, drew some of the day’s highest praise from Walz and members of the crowd for her renditions of “A Change is Gonna Come” and “Rise Up.” Walz said he could see her singing at their inauguration.

As at many other rallies held during the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza, pro-Palestinian protesters gathered outside and worked to draw attention to their cause. One person tried to disrupt Walz’s  speech. 

Political activist MajieAhna Winfrey from North Omaha drew thunderous applause with her statement about the stakes of the November election.

“The path to the White House runs through Nebraska,” she said. “Let’s go win this thing.”