Can 'Coach' pull the Barstool vote?

Aug 09, 2024

By Lauren Egan, Myah Ward, Eli Stokols and Ben Johansen

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Before Vice President KAMALA HARRIS introduced her running mate to the country, she knew exactly what she wanted to call him: “Coach Walz.”

It’s not that Minnesota Gov. TIM WALZ doesn’t have other titles: He’s a two-term governor, six-term member of Congress, former National Guard command sergeant and teacher. He’s very much a dad. But a Harris aide said the vice president found Walz’s role as defensive coordinator of Mankato West High School’s football team particularly compelling. With a small window of time to define him for the country, she felt embracing the coach persona would be key.

Harris referred to Walz as “coach” no fewer than 17 times during a Tuesday speech in Philadelphia. At a rally the next day in Wisconsin, supporters had caught on, chanting “Coach! Coach! Coach!” as Harris introduced him. Later that same day in Michigan, Harris promised supporters that come November, “the nation will know Coach Walz by the title ‘vice president of the United States.’”

As Harris got to know Walz during her vice presidential search, she was struck by his story of helping to take the high school team from a 0–27 season to winning a 1999 state championship within three years, establishing the program as a powerhouse in southern Minnesota. Harris felt that particular slice of Walz’s biography said something about his character, work ethic and commitment to his students — and she believed it would be relatable.

But leaning into “Coach Walz” could also have electoral benefits for the Harris campaign — especially as Democrats search for ways to narrow former President DONALD TRUMP’s lead among male voters.

“The Trump campaign has a smart media strategy to reach young men,” said TOMMY VIETOR, a former Obama White House aide who now co-hosts “Pod Save America,” noting that Trump has has gone to MMA matches with Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO DANA WHITE, golfed with BRYSON DECHAMBEAU and appeared on the Nelk Boys’ podcast.

“The Harris campaign needs to counter that outreach. Walz could talk football on ESPN. He could hang out for a few hours at the Barstool Sports office in Chicago. He can appeal to audiences that don’t normally lean left, or consume political news, but have a coach or a dad or an uncle like Tim Walz,” Vietor added.

It’s not yet clear that the attempted branding of Harris’ running mate will be enough to close a historically large gender gap. A July New York Times/Siena College poll showed Harris with a 14-point lead over Trump among likely female voters (55% to 41%), with Trump at a 17-point lead among men (56% to 39%) — making for a net 31-point gender gap.

But emphasizing Walz’s coaching credential is a start — and it’s a strategy that has worked for him in the past.

CELINDA LAKE, a 2020 Biden campaign pollster who was also the pollster on Walz’s first congressional campaign, said her research at the time showed that focusing on Walz’s experience as a coach — as well as his military and teaching career — resonated with voters.

“It was really powerful to rural and blue-collar voters. And it fit his personality too,” Lake said. “What we have found — particularly in this era where people like public servants and not politicians — even if you coached your kid’s soccer team or coached the little leagues, people love that.”

Walz’s ties to football have Democratic strategists frothing at the opportunity to make more direct appeals to male voters. Football, they note, is a powerful unifying force in American culture. And Walz is definitely a “Football Guy.” He famously live tweeted the Minnesota Vikings’ 2023 season and visited the team’s training camps as governor. One Democratic strategist said they could envision a scenario in which Walz filmed social media content playing the new and wildly popular “College Football 25” video game. Another hoped JIM MARGOLIS and Harris’ other ad makers were digging up old footage from the 1990s of Walz with a whistle around his neck at practice or hoisting the trophy from the year they won.

All of these ideas are currently being discussed at the Harris campaign headquarters. The Harris campaign official said they were talking over ideas of different podcasts, sports talk shows and other digital media engagements that Walz could do this fall, especially around football season.

“I think people have a positive view of coaches — of winners,” said MATT L. BARRON, a Democratic strategist who worked on Walz’s 2006 congressional campaign. “It’s transferable, you go to Georgia, the heart of the SEC, like college football is king. They begin to learn, ‘oh, he was a coach? He won a state championship?’ That’s my kind of guy.”

There are already signs that “coach” is breaking through a tricky media environment. Clips of Vietor geeking out with Walz on a February episode of his podcast about his 4-4 defense (complete with a discussion about his defensive players reading the guards) were circulating on social media in the hours after he was announced as Harris’ vice presidential pick. Sports outlets and football blogs also picked up the conversation.

“I did 24 years in the military, I was teaching, and then I started running for Congress,” Walz said in the podcast interview. “I’m absolutely convinced, and people have told me this: ‘Oh, [you got elected] cause you won that state championship.'”

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POTUS PUZZLER

Why did GEORGE W. BUSH faint in his White House living quarters?

(Answer at bottom.)

Photo of the Week

Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz greet supporters during a campaign event on August 6, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz greet supporters during a campaign event on August 6, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. | Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

CAMPAIGN HQ

SOME MOMENTUM IN NEVADA: A new poll of likely voters in Nevada shows Vice President Harris with a nearly 6 percentage point lead over Donald Trump, the largest lead for either her or JOE BIDEN in any presidential polls of Nevadans this cycle, the Nevada Independent’s GABBY BIRENBAUM reports. The poll, conducted by Decipher Ai’s DAVID WOLFSON — a pollster who has largely worked with Republicans — sampled 991 likely voters across the Silver State and found Harris raking in 49 percent, to Trump’s 44 percent.

While Nevada polls have been difficult to come by since Harris replaced Biden as the nominee, the vice president seems to have closed the gap that existed between Trump and Biden, who had not led the former president in a single Nevada public poll taken since October 2023.

HOW COMMITTED ARE THE ‘UNCOMMITTED’? When Harris brusquely cut off a pro-Palestinian protester at her rally in Detroit Wednesday night, it came just moments after she told the leaders of the Uncommitted movement she was open to a meeting to discuss policy toward Israel. As Myah, ADAM CANCRYN, EUGENE DANIELS and SHIA KAPOS report, the newly-minted presidential candidate’s “more considered approach” to a thorny issue still roiling the Democratic base suggests she may be trying to keep the drama behind the scenes. And activists determined to pressure leaders are weighing whether to dial back their public criticism as the election enters the final stretch. “There’s a way to make our point,” said JAMES ZOGBY, president of the Arab American Institute, “and there’s a way to not make our point and end up having a backlash.”

LEANING IN TO HER LAUGH: The NYT’s incisive KATIE ROGERS writes that Harris’ laugh, thought to be a liability in her first years as vice president, is now helping her personify a central theme of her campaign: joy. Harris’ laughter and her campaign’s upbeat tone offers a stark contrast to the GOP ticket and, Rogers writes with her usual verve, a political shield for sharper attacks on Trump and Vance.

WWP GETS RESULTS: On Wednesday, we wrote about why Harris hadn’t taken any questions from the press in the more than two weeks since becoming a presidential candidate. And whaddya know, on Thursday afternoon, she took a few questions from the pool of reporters on the tarmac in Detroit and said she was working to arrange a more in-depth interview before the end of the month.

And after Thursday’s edition where we reported that Biden’s revamped blueprint for his final months in office will include some targeted campaign stops, the White House announced on Friday that Biden and Harris will make their first joint appearance next Thursday in Maryland at an official event highlighting how the administration has been able to slash the cost of prescription drugs.

BIG LATINO PICKUP: America’s oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization, League of United Latin American Citizens, endorsed Vice President Harris on Friday, CBS News’ FIN GÓMEZ and NIDIA CAVAZOS report. The organization had previously not endorsed a presidential candidate since 1929. The endorsement comes as Harris is set to hold rallies in Glendale, Arizona, on Friday and Las Vegas on Saturday.

The Oval

PARTING SHOT: In an interview with our RYAN LIZZA, recently departed senior adviser to the president ANITA DUNN clapped back at former House Speaker NANCY PELOSI’s criticism of Biden’s political operation. “The task in front of us is to win this election and to not let Donald Trump become president again and to win the House of Representatives, which had certain leaders in 2022 done a slightly better job, maybe we would control today, but we don’t,” Dunn said when asked about Biden’s bitterness towards Democratic party leaders, mainly Pelosi.

Speaker emerita, we await your response.

BIDEN TO THE BIG EASY: The president and first lady JILL BIDEN will travel to New Orleans next Tuesday to attend an event focused on the administration’s “cancer moonshot” effort, the White House announced on Friday. (Some required pre-trip reading for the White House advance team: this BRETT MARTIN rundown of the city’s best sandwiches, which neglected to mention “Le Pig Mac” at Cochon Butcher — but, in his defense, you really can’t get to everything).

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU TO READ: This piece by NBC News’ DIDI MARTINEZ and LAURA STRICKLER, who report that shelters at the Southern border and some U.S. cities that were overflowed with migrants a year ago say they are seeing sharp declines in migrants seeking refuge, some reporting drops as significant as 60 percent in the past few months. Last month, the White House said the number of migrants apprehended at the border dropped 50 percent since Biden’s executive action limiting asylum claims, and now, emergency shelter infrastructure is feeling the impact.

Communications director BEN LaBOLT and deputy press secretary ANDREW BATES shared the piece on X.

WHAT THE WHITE HOUSE DOESN’T WANT YOU TO READ: Nancy Pelosi’s book, probably.

THE BUREAUCRATS

STRAIGHTENING OUT: After dozens of union workers at Crooked Media — the parent company of Pod Save America — went on a one-day strike earlier this week, the two sides came to an agreement on a new contract Friday. Last month, WGA East, the union representing the workers, had filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge against Crooked Media with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging the company violated the National Labor Relations Act. The union has now withdrawn those allegations.

“We're proud of this deal because it sets a new standard for how media companies treat their workers — which is exactly what we set out to do when we first recognized the union,” Pod co-host JON FAVREAU wrote on X. “We also appreciate the union clarifying that we *never* engaged in any kind of union-busting, and are glad they withdrew the unfair labor practice charge, which — as we said when it was first filed — was based on nothing more than a misunderstanding.”

PERSONNEL MOVES: ANNA LEACH HARTGE is now senior adviser for strategic partnerships at AmeriCorps, our DANIEL LIPPMAN has learned. She most recently was chief of staff of the Office of Communications and Outreach at the Department of Education.

— RYAN NUNN is now senior economist at the Council of Economic Advisers at the White House, Lippman has also learned. He most recently was assistant VP for applied research at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

Agenda Setting

LET’S WRAP THIS UP: In a joint statement from President Biden, Egyptian President ABDEL FATTAH EL-SISI and Emir of Qatar SHEIKH TAMIM BIN HAMAD AL THANI, the three leaders called on Israel and Hamas to return to the negotiating table next week and said they are prepared to present a “final” cease-fire proposal to end the war. They insisted that the negotiators meet in Daho or Cairo on Thursday to resume talks.

“It is time to bring immediate relief both to the long-suffering people of Gaza as well as the long-suffering hostages and their families,” the statement reads. “The time has come to conclude the ceasefire and hostages and detainees release deal.”

DON’T TAKE THE BAIT: Iran is accelerating online activity that appears aimed at interfering with the upcoming U.S. election, AP’s ALI SWENSON reports. Iranian actors have spent recent months creating fake news sites and impersonating activists, aiming to stoke division and potentially sway voters this fall, especially in swing states, Microsoft warned Friday. The report from Microsoft found that in June, a group linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard targeted a high-ranking U.S. presidential campaign official with a phishing email.

Days later, the Iranian group tried to log into an account that belonged to a former presidential candidate, but wasn’t successful, the report said.

What We're Reading

What the Convention Could Do for Kamala Harris (The Atlantic’s Ronald Brownstein)

Tim Walz: Governor, VP Candidate … Football Mastermind? (WSJ’s Andrew Beaton and Joshua Robinson)

How Harris Wins (NY Mag’s Jonathan Chait)

Does Anyone in America Miss Joe Biden As Much As Donald Trump? (TNY’s Susan B. Glasser)

POTUS PUZZLER ANSWER

In 2002, Bush briefly lost consciousness after he choked on a pretzel watching an NFL game at the White House. “My mother always said, when you’re eating pretzels, chew before you swallow,” Bush told reporters after the incident. “Listen to your mother.” Bush would later gift the White House press corps a large bag of pretzels, with a message written on the bag: “From POTUS. Chew slowly.”

A CALL OUT! Do you think you have a harder trivia question? Send us your best one about the presidents, with a citation or sourcing, and we may feature it!

Edited by Steve Shepard and Rishika Dugyala.

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