COOK COUNTY – It started in the Boundary Waters. 

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who is now the vice-presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket, first started coming here to paddle canoes. 

“(The Boundary Waters) is an important place. It’s an important place to Minnesota,” Walz told this reporter in 2018. “It’s deeply ingrained in us. I took teams up there to build camaraderie and to bring together sports teams from high school. We introduced a lot of kids over the years for their first time to the Boundary Waters.”

Walz was selected last week by Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris to be her running mate in a bid for the White House. The news from the campaign trail thrust his name into the national spotlight. 

In addition to paddling in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) when he was an educator in Mankato, Walz has another connection to the Gunflint Trail area. Walz’s brother, Craig, died on Duncan Lake in 2016 when a tree fell on his campsite during a severe storm. Craig’s son, Jacob, was injured in the incident, though he survived.

Walz was a congressman at the time. The governor’s brother died on Sunday, June 20, which happened to be Father’s Day that year.

In 2018, this reporter interviewed Governor Walz for WTIP Community Radio about the incident that took his brother’s life. It is the only interview in which Walz specifically answered questions about his family’s painful connection to the Boundary Waters and is among only a handful of times he has ever addressed the topic publicly. As we spoke of the BWCAW and about his brother’s death, Walz said, “First of all, Joe, our family will be forever in debt to the entire community.” He continued, “Folks, strangers, saved my nephew’s life, risking their own in the middle of the night in a storm. And we are deeply appreciative of that. And we’re also heartbroken. Craig was the center of our family. He and I paddled the Boundary Waters for decades. He loved that place. It gives me some comfort to know that’s where he rests.”

More recently, Walz was back in headlines associated with the Boundary Waters when he authorized the Minnesota National Guard to assist in the recovery mission at Curtain Falls. Two paddlers who went over the falls in May were missing for more than two weeks before they were found.

In terms of controversial mining projects proposed near the BWCAW, Walz has been largely middle of the road, though he leans more in the direction of being supportive of the process that could open pathways for Twin Metals and other mining companies to operate near the most visited wilderness area in the nation. During a 2019 interview with MinnPost, Walz said, “There are those, and I respect them, who say there is nothing that can come out of this that’s good enough to merit the risk. There are others that say we can alleviate that risk and we can do this better than anybody else can and we can use these minerals not just to create jobs, but to create a cleaner energy future. And I come down on the side that I think we can do things right. It’s my job to make sure we do. 

We’re not going to cut any corners. This has been the most vetted project in Minnesota’s history. And apparently there’s more, a little bit more to vet on this.”

Despite not taking a hardline stance on the mining issue, which is critical to some Minnesota Democrats, Walz has garnered a lot of support from Cook County voters. He and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan won the 2022 election in a landslide on the local level, collecting nearly 70 percent of the vote here. Walz showed particularly strong support in Grand Marais, with the Walz-Flanagan ticket collecting 528 votes compared to just 160 for GOP gubernatorial candidates Scott Jensen and Matt Birk. 

As the election season ramps up, we wanted to take a look at some of the stops Walz has made in Cook County during recent years. We’ll also review some of the decisions the Walz administration has made while he’s been in office that had a substantial impact on Cook County specifically. 

2018

After winning his first election to be Minnesota’s governor, Walz visited Grand Portage for an open house as part of a statewide “listening tour.” As reported by Boreal Community Media at the time, “A standing-room-only crowd greeted Minnesota Governor-Elect Tim Walz as he visited Cook County on Monday.  The public town hall meeting was the second to last stop of his ‘One Minnesota’ tour of 24 sites across Minnesota since his election in November.”

According to the report, topics discussed during the event included climate change, affordable housing, economic development, daycare, wild rice sulfide standards, the opioid epidemic, support of education, and the tension between metropolitan areas and rural Minnesota.

In addition, Boreal reported that members of the Grand Portage tribal community asked Walz about his commitment to Native Americans and their rights and sovereignty.  Walz mentioned that he started his career in education as a teacher near the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, saying "If our indigenous children are doing well, the entire community is doing well."  Walz pointed out that Flanagan is a citizen of the White Earth Nation of Ojibwe and serves on the board of Native Progress.

2020

At a GOP-sponsored event on the shores of Devil Track Lake in July, Jennifer Carnahan, then the chair of the Minnesota Republican Party, said Gov. Walz was abusing his power and “showing Minnesotans what communism looks like in 2020.”

The event was held during an election year, in the first few months of the COVID pandemic. Walz responded to the accusation of bringing “communism” to Minnesota during a subsequent interview with this reporter on WTIP. 

“I did not spend 24 years in the United States Army to be called a communist,” Walz said. 

Walz made multiple references to then-President Donald Trump during the interview. He also talked about people who were leaving litter and trash along the North Shore as an influx of visitors came to Cook County and the BWCAW during the pandemic. 

“One person’s socialism and communism is another person’s neighborliness,” Walz said. “It’s not so bad to help one another. It’s not bad to pick up your own trash. Maybe pick up a little extra to keep it (clean), because we all share this space.”

2023

Last October, Walz announced that he chose Steve Hanke as District Court Judge in Minnesota’s Sixth Judicial District to replace Judge Michael Cuzzo. Hanke is now the lone judge serving the North Shore. He is chambered in Two Harbors in Lake County and Grand Marais in Cook County. 

Hanke now finds himself amid a controversial court case regarding Superior Shores and its owner Bryce Campbell. Campbell also owns Lutsen Resort in Cook County, which burned to the ground earlier this year. 

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Walz was in California Aug. 13 on the first solo tour of the campaign trail since he was selected as the vice-presidential candidate by Harris. From there he goes to Colorado, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York. There are currently no dates in the books for any campaign events in Minnesota.