WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� Even before he was on the shortlist for vice president, Minnesota was working to portray Donald Trump and Republicans to the American public as 鈥渏ust weird."
鈥淭hese are weird people on the other side. They want to take books away. They want to be in your exam room,鈥� Walz said in a TV interview last month.
The message started with news interviews and eventually spread like wildfire across social media with the help of young Americans. The simple terminology of labeling the other side as 鈥渨eird鈥� or 鈥渙dd鈥� is not revolutionary or sophisticated in American politics but represents a for Democrats who have spent the last eight years trying to defeat Trump and Trumpism by personifying him as the greatest threat to democracy.
Walz went back to the reference at his first rally Tuesday with Vice President Kamala Harris, saying of Republicans: "These guys are creepy and yes, just weird as hell.鈥�
鈥淭he opposite of normalizing authoritarianism is to make it weird, to call it out and to sort of mock it,鈥� Jennifer Mercieca, a historian at Texas A&M University, who wrote a book on Trump鈥檚 rhetoric, said. 鈥淭o say, 鈥楬ey, that鈥檚 a weird thing you鈥檙e doing, calling your opposition enemies instead of saying that they鈥檙e good people who have different policy preferences.'鈥�
Now the party is turning the page with a new generation of candidates trying to appeal not just to Americans' fears about what a second Trump presidency would mean, but to plainly label the policies and actions of the Republican party as abnormal. And Democrats see no more effective messenger to deliver this new attack than Walz, the 60-year-old Midwestern dad, who on Tuesday was chosen to become their vice presidential nominee.
鈥淕ov. Walz can do the job, and helps reinforce that we鈥檙e team normal,鈥� freshman Democratic Rep. Greg Landsman of Ohio said in a statement Tuesday. "We鈥檙e pragmatic, reliable and bipartisan."
Walz's ability to speak in layman鈥檚 terms about policy and politics coupled with his knowledge of the internet zeitgeist has helped propel the little-known politician to the national stage and on the 鈥淔or You鈥� social media pages of millions of Gen Z voters whose support will be crucial for Democrats come November.
Labeled 鈥渢he cool dad鈥� online, news that Walz would be the Democratic running mate ignited a stream of online memes, including one with the caption, 鈥淭o the window to the Walz,鈥� a reference to the hit 2003 rap song 鈥淕et Low鈥� by Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz. On TikTok, users created 60-second montages of Walz talking about the phenomenon of the new Charli XCX album Brat, which he says his young daughter helped explain to him, mixed with footage of him lambasting GOP vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance for his comments on 鈥渃hildless cat ladies.鈥�
鈥淕o ahead and continue to denigrate people. Go ahead. My God, they went after cat people. Good luck with that,鈥� Walz says in a MSNBC clip that has more than 150,000 likes on TikTok. 鈥淭urn on the internet. See what cat people do when you go after them.鈥�
But the same qualities that led Walz to the Democratic ticket are already being used against him by Republicans who have just in the last few hours labeled him as 鈥渨eird鈥� and 鈥渞adical."
Trump sent a fundraising email Tuesday calling Walz 鈥淒angerously Liberal鈥� and saying he would 鈥渦nleash HELL ON EARTH.鈥�
But Walz's legislative record on issues like protecting abortion rights, legalizing recreational marijuana and restricting gun access have helped him gain popularity with young voters beyond his own solidly blue state to communities across the country.
Voters of Tomorrow, a Gen Z-led organization that represents young political activists and voters, threw its full support behind Walz after weeks of campaigning on his behalf, saying that he has 鈥渄edicated his life to educating and empowering young people as a teacher and public servant.鈥�
鈥淕overnor Walz gets bonus points for articulating exactly how young Americans feel about Donald Trump and JD Vance: They are weird," Santiago Mayer, the group's executive director, said in a statement. 鈥淭rump and Vance are weirdly fixated on taking away freedoms from Americans and weirdly obsessed with culture wars.鈥�
Farnoush Amiri, The Associated Press
