There’s a certain mindset in the upper Midwest in general (mostly in Boomer, Gen X, and less but still present in elder Millennials) where a large portion of our “independents“ are people for whom their centrism isn’t ideological politically, but is more opposed to a single party having all of the control or more open to outsiders like Jesse Ventura. I have seen many of these individuals (I live in MN) and talked to them and their opinions are fairly left leaning, but because there is a fear that they may not even recognize, they will vote cross party on a ticket because they see that is some sort of balance.
I think Walz can still appeal to those individuals.
This is very true, and all you need to look at is Wisconsin 2022. Mandela Barnes (D) narrowly lost the Senate race to Ron Johnson ®, but Tony Evers (D) crushed Tim Michels ® for governor. Given the numbers, this would’ve been impossible without some split ticket votes.
There’s a certain mindset in the upper Midwest in general (mostly in Boomer, Gen X, and less but still present in elder Millennials) where a large portion of our “independents“ are people for whom their centrism isn’t ideological politically, but is more opposed to a single party having all of the control or more open to outsiders like Jesse Ventura. I have seen many of these individuals (I live in MN) and talked to them and their opinions are fairly left leaning, but because there is a fear that they may not even recognize, they will vote cross party on a ticket because they see that is some sort of balance.
I think Walz can still appeal to those individuals.
This is very true, and all you need to look at is Wisconsin 2022. Mandela Barnes (D) narrowly lost the Senate race to Ron Johnson ®, but Tony Evers (D) crushed Tim Michels ® for governor. Given the numbers, this would’ve been impossible without some split ticket votes.