Tim Walz diagnoses his party’s sad state: We aren’t selling policies voters hate hard enough

Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said the Democratic Party has gotten into a “mess” because they were not “bold enough” to double down on issues such as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and immigration.

The left-wing governor also said during a town hall event in Rosenberg, Texas, Thursday that Democrats have allowed the Republican Party to “define the issue” on the aforementioned topics. Walz’s remarks come as the Democratic Party grapples with its election losses after the Republican Party won control of the White House and both chambers of Congress in the 2024 election cycle.

“So I think and I’m going to own this, when we see people back off and we see corporations back off to the threats, instead of leaning into and knowing we’re doing this because it’s not only morally the right thing to do, it’s economically the right thing to do,” Walz added. “And our culture proves that our strength is our diversity.”

“We’ve been talking about this for years as a country of immigrants, and we let them define the issue on immigration,” Walz said. “We let them define the issue on DEI and we let them define what woke is. We got ourselves in this mess because we weren’t bold enough to stand up and say ‘you damn right we’re proud of these policies. We’re going to put them in, and we’re going to execute them.’”

Walz also told the town hall audience that “our very existence depends on diversity, equity and inclusion.”

Notably, Democrats have been confronting stark divisions within their party since the November 2024 presidential election and have been struggling to decide on cohesive messaging that resonates with voters. Recent polling has underscored the ongoing struggles of the Democratic Party, with the party’s approval rating dropping to a record low of 29% this year, according to a March 16 CNN poll conducted by SSRS.

Former President Joe Biden’s administration also oversaw a massive wave of illegal immigration. During the Biden-Harris White House, a record low number of deportations in a single year was noted, while an all-time high of border encounters and fentanyl seizures were also recorded.

The ongoing immigration crisis in the U.S. has been a top concern for voters in recent years, with several polls showing that the majority of Americans support mass deportations. Relatedly, 53% of Hispanic adults said they approve of “a new national program to deport all undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S. illegally,” according to a CBS/YouGov poll conducted in June 2024.

Biden signed an executive order during his first day in office aiming to advance “equity and racial justice through the federal government,” which opened the floodgates for his administration to embed various DEI programs across federal agencies. President Donald Trump’s administration quickly reversed these programs during his first days in office.

Some polling has shown voters support eliminating DEI-related programs in the government and schools. A poll from The New York Times/Ipsos conducted in January found that the majority of Americans, 79%, believe that transgender female athletes should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports.

Walz’s office did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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