Two years ago, the Texas-born paralegal left her home state when its governor, Greg Abbott, announced child abuse investigations would be carried out into families whose children were receiving puberty-blocking treatments.
She headed for Minnesota after researching each state’s legal position on transgender issues, and said Mr Walz was “one of the main reasons” for Minnesota’s appeal. If the family had stayed in Texas, she believes Cass, now 17, would have turned to suicide.
Mr Walz is broadly popular in Minnesota, though locals say he has drifted to the Left since his days as a congressman representing a conservative district as a card-carrying member of the National Rifle Association.
Amy Koch, a former Republican leader of Minnesota’s senate, noted that while he did not win more conservative areas any more – such as the blue collar mining communities in the state’s “Iron Range” – he outperformed other Democrats and appealed beyond the party’s base.
She expressed doubt that the Trump campaign’s criticisms of his pro-trans policies would pay off and urged it to focus on issues like his handling of Covid fraud and the Black Lives Matter protests.
“I don’t know how much it moves the needle,” Ms Koch said. “From my perspective, those are harder hits on Walz than some of the other stuff.”
But Mr Samuelson, who lived in several Republican states before moving to Minnesota, suggested the attacks on Mr Walz’s trans stance could cut through, at least in the short term, with conservative-leaning voters.
“Based on having known a lot of Republicans, I think it will initially resonate with them,” he said. “But I don’t think it will pay off long-term.”
