The Trans Issue Is a ‘Drag’ on the Ticket: The Dems Lost Their Blue Wall When They Blew It With Walz

Whenever Democrats lose an election and conduct the autopsy of the bloated, rotting corpse, they always discover the same thing: It was everyone else’s fault!

Isn’t that weird? Apparently, “everyone else” is a real troublemaker.

So it’ll be more of the same in 2024: Biden will blame Harris. Harris will blame Biden. Rural Democrats will blame big-city Democrats. Extremely insane liberals will blame semi-insane liberals. 

And so on and so forth until, eventually, they all coalesce and blame conservatives, free speech, and the voters. We’re still a few weeks away from being outed as the villain. (But it won’t be fully our fault: The Dems will conclude that we were all victims of the patriarchy’s propaganda and were just too stupid to realize it, which is why they’ll launch a renewed drive to deplatform conservatives.)

Although we accurately predicted that Donald Trump would score a landslide electoral victory, make no mistake: This election could’ve gone either way. Not by the end, of course; by the end of October, it was too late. Kamala’s goose was cooked; the coconut tree she fell out of was chopped down and shredded into toothpicks.

After a big election (or even a big game), it’s human nature to look at the final score and assume it was always inevitable. That’s the psychological power of hindsight. But had Harris run a smarter, more strategic campaign, PJ Media readers wouldn’t be nearly as jovial this week!

Her single biggest mistake was selecting head assistant coach Tim Walz as her running mate. (She actually blamed it on sleep deprivation!)

Strategically, we know what the Democrats were hoping for: Walz is a man’s man! He likes football and wears flannel! And since Kamala Harris is a minority woman, choosing a white male Midwesterner as her veep, they assumed, would balance the ticket and attract new voters.

Their calculus was astonishingly misguided. Walz failed to balance the ticket geographically (The Dems won Minnesota — his home state — by less than 4.5 points! And Minnesota hadn’t voted for a Republican president since 1972.) and didn’t bring in any new voters whatsoever.

There were ZERO “Tim Walz Republicans.” (I’m not sure there were even any “Tim Walz Democrats”!)

In fact, the opposite was true: Walz chased away independents and moderates and was instrumental in branding Harris as a leftwing nutjob who's beholden to extremists.

Harris had two high-water moments in this campaign: Her acceptance speech at the DNC and her performance in her first (and only) presidential debate. If she had a stronger running mate and a better game plan, she could’ve capitalized on her momentum. All she needed was a fresh face to join her on stage to rebrand the Democratic Party.

But they blew it with Walz, which cost them their Blue Wall.

Gov. Josh Shapiro wouldn’t have only helped Harris in Pennsylvania; it’s myopic to view his impact so narrowly. Sure, Pennsylvania was a must-win state that ultimately turned red, but Shapiro’s PR benefit would’ve extended far beyond the Keystone State: It would’ve signaled to the rest of the country that Harris is welcoming of moderates and has the courage to stand up to the Jew-hating maniacs on the far left.

Selecting Shapiro would’ve been her Sister Souljah moment — a high-profile condemnation of bigotry and hatred. It would’ve transformed her entire brand identity.

It might’ve even transformed the race.

Unfortunately, she lacked the courage to pick a Jew. Too much blowback from the Hamas fans. So instead, she did the opposite: She doubled down on her liberal base, rewarded it, and went with Walz.

It didn’t take balls to pick Walz! Again, the opposite is true.

The Minnesota governor is an unattractive, uncharismatic leftwing loon who lied about his military service. He allowed not just late-term abortions, but post-birth abortions(!) — and then changed the law so doctors didn’t have to report it. He backed the BLM protests and turned a blind eye while his cities were burning to the ground. (By his own admission, Minnesota’s response to the riots was an “abject failure”!) 

And perhaps most shockingly, he led the fight to stop parents from preventing permanent genital mutilation in their children. Under Walz’s watch, Minnesota became a “trans refuge” state. Now, even if a judge from another state determines that a parent has the right to decide what kind of medical care their child receives, Minnesota law ignores the judge and proceeds instead with their own “gender-affirming care.”

(And you know what that means.)

Even if someone other than the child’s parents — such as their aunt, uncle (or an unrelated adult!) — seeks custody “for the purpose of obtaining gender-affirming health care,” under Minnesota law, they can proceed. Even if other judges in other states listened to the child’s parents and ruled differently!

Trump ran commercials against Harris, blasting her for supporting taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners. And the allegation stuck. Why? Because it was believable.

Alas, that would’ve taken courage.

Unfortunately for the Democrats, trans issues were a “drag” on the ticket.