Tim Walz is returning to his home state where there’s a battle over a key Nebraska electoral vote

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Thousands of Nebraskans are expected to turn out on Saturday for native son Tim Walz on his first trip back to his home state since becoming the Democratic vice presidential nominee.

Supporters hope Walz’s rural roots — he grew up in the small towns of Valentine and Butte in the Sandhills — could help Democrats appeal to wide swaths of Republican strongholds where they have rarely been competitive in recent elections.

However, his appearance in Omaha also reinforces the campaign’s interest in securing the single electoral vote that comes with winning the swing 2nd Congressional District, which Joe Biden secured in 2020 and Barack Obama in 2008. Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance is expected to visit Omaha next week for a private fundraiser hosted by Nebraska Sen. Pete Ricketts.

“I think it just proves the importance that we as the blue dot — CD2 — has,” Omaha teacher Wes Jensen said.

Former state Sen. Al Davis, who represented the Panhandle town of Alliance where Walz taught for six years before moving to Minnesota after meeting his wife, said he thinks Walz “can speak to rural parts of the country in ways that other candidates never could do.” He added, “So I’m hoping that that will turn some votes in rural parts of Nebraska and across the Midwest.”

Alliance residents are planning a local rally of their own next week to watch Walz speak at the Democratic convention in Chicago.

Bill McCamley of Lincoln said he remembers that Walz, now the governor of Minnesota, was interested in government when he taught him social studies in the seventh grade in Valentine but he never expected him to go on to become governor or perhaps vice president someday.

McCamley said Walz came up with the idea on his own in the seventh grade to build a veterans memorial for everyone from Cherry County who had served in the military, and then he convinced local leaders to build a sidewalk for the memorial.

“I went with him, but he did the job. He talked to them and said this is that idea. This is what I want to do,” McCamley said. “Then he got that he got them to agree to go along with it. I thought that was pretty impressive.”

McCamley had to call the state Democratic Party to get access to Saturday’s rally after the online registration system was shut down once 10,000 had expressed interest in attending the rally at a theater in the Omaha suburb of La Vista that’s only designed to hold about 2,500 people. However unlikely it is, McCamley hoped for a chance to reconnect with his former student and jokingly confront him about a valentine he gave his daughter, Julie Long, when the two dated in the seventh grade.

Long said she hung onto the valentine Walz gave her for a lot of years because the message declaring, “Ours is a strange and wonderful relationship,” made her laugh. On the inside, the card said, “You’re strange and I’m wonderful.”

“That kind of sums up his humor,” said Long who used to compete with Walz to see which one of them was smarter because her dad was a teacher and his was the superintendent there.

They both moved away in high school and Long lost track of Walz — outside of a chance meeting when both of them lived in the Panhandle — until she noticed him showing up in the news as governor dealing with difficult problems like the protests that followed George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police.

After dealing with that unrest and managing to pass key priorities like protections for abortion and free lunches for school kids, Walz has a long list of accomplishments that will appeal to Democratic voters.

But Long said Walz might also appeal to Republicans because he is smart, funny and cares about helping people.

“I think if people are willing to listen — really listen — to the things that he says and, and those kinds of things, that it will open some doors,” said Long who lives in Hot Springs, South Dakota, and won’t be able to accompany her dad to the rally.