Tim Walz to launch national tour of town halls in Republican House districts

Tim Walz is headed back out on the road – this time, for a tour of House districts represented by Republicans, some of whom have stopped holding town halls amid the raucous receptions their colleagues have gotten across the country.

Tim Walz is headed back out on the road – this time, for a tour of House districts represented by Republicans who have stopped holding in-person town halls amid the raucous receptions some of their colleagues have gotten across the country. The Minnesota governor and 2024 vice presidential candidate will start on Friday in Iowa, in the district represented by Rep. Zach Nunn, then head across the border to Nebraska, for the district represented by Rep. Don Bacon – both of whom won tight races for re-election last year. Walz’s team is already planning stops in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Ohio for the coming weeks, with more stops expected to be added. Given his national profile after his time on the Democratic ticket last year, Walz said he felt obligated to step up. “There was just a primal scream of folks recognizing what’s going on with the Trump administration, their authoritarian tendencies, and what they viewed was a lack of a proper response from their representatives,” he told CNN on Wednesday. “It was about these Republican representatives recognizing this stuff’s really unpopular, so they’re going to quit the town halls. These folks need to be heard. They need to be heard and be candid with you, Democratic leadership needs to hear them.” Walz’s plans started with a post last week on X, responding to House Republican leaders who advised their colleagues to stop holding town halls. Republicans have accused those town halls of being packed with paid activists – though those making such accusations haven’t provided any evidence or explanations of why Democratic members’ town halls have also been packed. Walz said he’d been overwhelmed by the response to that tweet, and his staff has been sifting through what an aide told CNN was hundreds of invitations from local party leaders and candidates asking him to come. He said he found that response reassuring after he and Kamala Harris lost to Donald Trump and JD Vance.