Pork Chops and Politics: Tim Walz Gets Minnesota Homecoming at State Fair

For Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, August was a dizzying climb to the highest echelons of politics. Since being selected as Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, he has been the featured guest at glitzy private fund-raisers, flown to more than a dozen states and headlined a night at the Democratic convention in Chicago, with thousands in the arena hanging on his every word.

On Sunday, Mr. Walz was back in more familiar territory: the Minnesota State Fair.

He chomped on a pork chop on a stick. He admired the dairy princess butter carvings. He handed out ice cream at the Dairy Goodness Bar counter and waved at the crowd, which was eager for a glimpse — or a selfie — with the governor, who, for once, got to eschew the formal suit and tie for his more comfortable T-shirt and Carhartt pants.

It could have been just another one of Mr. Walz’s many state fair appearances over the years, where he has burnished his profile as an approachable Midwestern dad by wearing socks with a corn-dog pattern and riding the Slingshot, a nausea-inducing ride, with his daughter, Hope Walz.

Except for the presence of the Secret Service. And the motorcade that whisked him to and from the fair. And the officers stationed on the roof of the dairy building for an aerial view of the crowd, which was clamoring to see the man who has a chance this November to complete a meteoric rise from little-known Midwestern governor to vice president.

Mr. Walz, clutching a vanilla milkshake, acknowledged the obvious: Things were different this year.

“A little bit more of a disruption,” he told reporters, noting that he had to cut down from his usual 12 days of appearances. “But it’s exciting — I think people are seeing that we’re getting to talk about Minnesota across the country.”