Democrats are leaning hard into the “schoolteacher” and “coach” personas for Tim Walz to paint their vice presidential candidate and the Minnesota governor as more relatable and less radical than he really is.
“I was a schoolteacher for a lot of years,” said the folksy Tim Walz in a speech last week at a Human Rights Campaign dinner, touting his time as a “social studies teacher and high school football coach.” Yet in the next breath, he praised LGBT “allyship” and declared, “We must be the country that leads on “gay and transgender rights.”
They used the same strategy during Walz’s speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last month. Former students showed up to watch, teachers union officials played up that part of his resume on the convention floor, and Walz himself spoke about it in his speech to a crowd holding signs that said, “Coach Walz.”
Democrats and their media lapdogs are spinning away, but American voters should not be duped by the routine. As a former educator and the current superintendent of the Oklahoma State Department of Education, I can tell you that I have encountered many educators like Walz throughout my career. Every parent in the country should be on high alert if this man gets anywhere close to the vice presidency. He is as anti-parent as they come.
Just look at his record. Walz’s governorship has, of course, always been about putting teachers unions and radical political ideologies over parents’ rights and students’ well-being.
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