Everybody at the DNC loves Tim Walz. How did he do it?

Senator Mark Kelly and Governor Tim Walz were both in the running to become Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, making them somewhat rivals for a short time. Senators are often incredibly deferential to each other even if they are in other parties.

Both of these things should have moderated Kelly’s response in normal times. But Kelly, wearing a Navy ballcap outside the Democratic National Convention’s veterans’ caucus, did not bother to contain his disgust when asked about Senator JD Vance’s attacks on Walz.

“It’s ridiculous — he [Walz] served 24 years in the United States Army and the National Guard,” Kelly told The Independent. “As a fellow veteran — JD Vance served in the Marine Corps — I have total respect for his service in the military, and JD Vance should respect Tim Walz's honorable service in the Army and National Guard.”

Throughout the Democratic National Convention, Walz has become a breakout star. Democrats have celebrated the fact that even as a congressman from a red district, he supported gay rights going back to his days as a teacher.

Chicago Bulls legend and gold medal-winning Team USA basketball coach Steve Kerr spoke to him “coach to coach.” Walz has also visited the AAPI caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus meetings at the DNC, while his wife Gwen visited the disability caucus meeting on Tuesday. Polling shows him outpacing Vance.

But perhaps his strongest base of support is in the House of Representatives, where he served from 2007 until 2019, when he became governor. That in and of itself is remarkable, given how divided the House Democratic caucus is.

“We enjoyed the fact that he came from a very tough district, worked really hard to achieve it, and then dove into the work of