Tim Walz is out to teach Trump a lesson as he trials election attack lines on the road

The rain was coming down on the 2,500 people at a live music venue in Asheville, North Carolina. The ground was wet and soft. And the crowd was cheering as loudly as you’d hear at any of the shows the venue has hosted for acts like The Beach Boys or Mavis Staples over the years.

But the thousands of North Carolinians who’d gathered there on a soggy Thursday in September, just under 60 days from Election Day, didn’t come to hear music. They came for a 60-year-old former teacher who, if they have anything to do with it, will be the nation’s second-highest ranking elected official come January 2025.

For his part, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz appears to be enjoying the ride.

Walz — who served more than two decades in the Army National Guard while teaching before parlaying a decade-long stint in Congress into the North Star State’s governor’s mansion — wasn’t the top choice of most top Democratic pundits when it came time for Vice President Kamala Harris to pick a running-mate. Yet, just six weeks since he was catapulted to the national spotlight, he appeared incredibly at ease with himself during a campaign swing through Georgia and North Carolina this week.

Let’s just say he cuts a far different figure than his Republican counterpart, Ohio Senator JD Vance, has done on the campaign trail.

Accompanied by his daughter Hope, who he frequently name-checks in his speeches when discussing the fertility struggles he and his wife Gwen faced while trying to have children, Walz is comfortable in khakis and an open collar. It’s a marked contrast with the more formal affectations of Vance, whose sartorial tendencies are an echo of the boxy suits and overly long ties favored by Donald Trump.

The gray-haired and balding ex-educator, who