Addressing the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Wednesday night, Tim Walz, the party’s vice-presidential nominee, referred to the state which he has served as a congressman and, since 2019, as governor: “In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make. And even if we wouldn’t make those same choices for ourselves, we’ve got a golden rule: Mind your own damn business.”
The line embodied the middle-of-the-road, sensible image Mr. Walz has sought to project since Vice President Kamala Harris named him her running mate this month.
It was a choice Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota endorsed on Monday while speaking to her state’s delegation, boasting, “We’re a state where the women are strong, where the men are good-looking, and where all the vice presidents are above average.” Her comments were a paraphrase of the famous introduction to a segment of the long-running radio program “A Prairie Home Companion,” which tells the stories of the fictional small Minnesota town of Lake Wobegon.
For decades, “A Prairie Home Companion” was written and hosted by Garrison Keillor, who was born in the very real small Minnesota town of Anoka. Since retiring from the show in 2016, Mr. Keillor has continued to write and tour. In subsequent years, Mr. Keillor reached a settlement with Minnesota Public Radio related to an accusation of “unwanted sexual touching” by a woman who worked on the show. Mr. Keillor denied the accusation and no criminal charges were filed.
The New York Times spoke to Mr. Keillor, 82, on Thursday to hear what he made of the D.N.C.’s Minnesota-ganza, which also included appearances by former football players from Mr. Walz’s coaching days in Mankato and a performance of “Let’s Go Crazy,” the hit song from the proud Minnesotan Prince.
The interview has been edited and condensed.
What did you make of Gov. Walz’s speech?
They picked a real person. Whenever I encountered him, you could tell he’d been teaching high school and he knew how to talk to people without taking himself too seriously, and knowing that at least half of them weren’t hearing half of what he had to say.
So you’ve met him?
I’ve been to a couple fund-raisers for him, and I was glad to do it. He was running in what had been considered a hopeless district for Democrats. And he won it on authenticity. He grew up on a farm, he was a hunter and a football coach, and he was able to talk the talk.
We can also put the cliché of Minnesota Nice to rest. That was not niceness on display last night. He went out and he did a job — he did the job that he was supposed to do. He spoke in short, punchy sentences and he brought that crowd to their feet.
Tell me about the part of Minnesota his district is in.
When he came out with his big line, “Mind your own damn business” — that’s a line you’ve not heard a national political candidate use. That’s a small-town phrase, it goes well in a barroom or in a cafe.
What about that phrase makes sense in small towns?
You can say it to people who you know. And in a small town, you can say it with a slight undercurrent of irony: You can say it sort of half-jokingly but still mean it. If people stick their nose in your affairs, you can tell them to back off. Whereas in New York — I live in New York now — everybody is minding everybody else’s business all the time.
The Democrats seem to think that line could be an antidote in those places to the appeal of Republicans and Donald J. Trump. Do you agree?
Trump has been wanting people to mind his business forever. He’s the only person in politics I can think of who goes out and talks so much about himself, his feelings and his troubles and his disappointments.
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