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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s response to the 2020 George Floyd riots in Minneapolis left some residents concerned about their home state’s leadership.
Now that Walz, 60, is Vice President Harris' running mate on the 2024 Democrat ticket, those same residents are concerned about their country’s potential new leadership in the coming year.
"Where I live now, people are disgusted by Tim Walz. But where I live now doesn’t represent a large swath of Minnesota’s population," Max Rymer, who moved with his wife and two children from a neighborhood south of downtown Minneapolis to a suburb about 45 minutes north of the city in 2020, told Fox News Digital.
Rymer, who is running as a Republican for the Minnesota House of Representatives District 28B, "still can't believe there are people in the state who support the guy after" what residents "have been through the last four years."
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Max Rymer and his family moved from south of downtown Minneapolis to a suburb 45 minutes north of the city in 2020. (Max Rymer)
Police say a man captured on surveillance video breaking windows at a South Minneapolis auto parts store in the days after George Floyd’s death was a Hell’s Angels member who was bent on stirring up social unrest. (Mark Vancleave/Star Tribune via AP)
He recalled the owner of a roast beef shop down the street from their former home "who got robbed and shot" around that time. "That never happened before," Rymer said.
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That includes COVID-19 lockdown mandates that shuttered local restaurants and businesses; the rioting after George Floyd’s murder that further devastated more than 360 businesses; rising violent crime across the state with a particular emphasis on carjackings; and immigration and refugee policies that have given Minneapolis the largest Somali population in the United States. The state also accounts for 25% of all ISIS recruits in the country, according to Minnesota nonprofit American Experiment.
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The rioting in 2020 was so destructive that an entire police precinct in Minneapolis burned down.
Minneapolis business owners Lloyd Drilling and Elijah Fhima told Fox News’ Martha McCallum in 2021 that when they received a report from their store’s alarm on one of the nights of rioting, they called police, but after 30 minutes passed without any kind of response, the alarm company and police told them they were on their own because authorities were so overwhelmed that evening.
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A building goes up in flames during the George Floyd riots in 2020. (Getty Images)
Charles Stotts and Kacey White, the owners of Town Talk Diner & Gastropub, told "Fox & Friends" in 2020 that on May 29, 2020, around 4:30 in the morning, the couple got a phone call telling them to "tune into the TV real quick," Scotts said. When they did, they saw their historic downtown restaurant on fire.
Once the area was safe, Stotts and White went to the restaurant to see the damage in person.
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"To actually see the historic sign in the rubble, it’s really emotional," she said.
More people are leaving Minnesota than those who are moving to the North Star State. The state took a significant migratory hit in 2020 that has since stabilized, according to state statistics.
More people are leaving Minnesota than those who are moving to the North Star State. The state took a significant hit in 2020 that has since stabilized, according to state statistics. (Minnesota Migration Report 2023)
"Between the pandemonium of the riots and also the COVID restrictions … if you go to our downtown, where the businesses are, there’s really much not activity there," Rymer explained, adding that some parts of the city like Uptown are unrecognizable compared to what they were when he moved to the state in 2009 to go to college.
Some Minnesotans have criticized Gov. Tim Walz's handling of the 2020 riots that destroyed businesses in Minneapolis.
Protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd while in police custody erupted across the country. (Salwan Georges/Washington Post via Getty Images)
"I think he's uber progressive," Rymer said of Walz, "and maybe he hasn't always been that way, but he's governed that way."
Others who spoke to Fox News Digital in October 2020 said they moved from Minneapolis to the suburbs due to the riots, a general spike in violence and business closures.
Walz waited four days to bring the National Guard to Minneapolis during the riots. Even Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told the Star Tribune that Walz did not immediately respond to his calls for help at the time.
Protesters are shown outside a burning fast-food restaurant on May 29, 2020, in Minneapolis. Protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody Monday, broke out in Minneapolis for a third straight night. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
"[H]e's been a disaster for Minnesota and is by far the most partisan governor that I can remember having," Minnesota GOP Chair David Hann told Fox News Digital last month when Walz was being eyed as a potential VP pick. "Going back to 2020, certainly – he did nothing to try to stop the riots going on in Minneapolis. I think he was fearful of alienating his ‘progressive’ base, who were supporting the riots. Kamala Harris was raising money for the rioters."
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Still, Democrats have cheered Harris’ pick of Walz, describing the governor, who is a father of two, as a typical "Minnesota dad" and highlighting his career of serving Minnesota in Congress, his military background and his experience teaching social studies rather than his tenure as governor.
Democrat presidential nominee Vice President Harris is welcomed by her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, before she delivers remarks at a campaign event in Eau Claire, Wis., Aug. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
"Governor Walz has been a strong leader, a great partner with the [l]egislature," Minnesota Democrat House Speaker Melissa Hortman previously told Fox News Digital in a statement. "We worked together over the last two years on the most productive session in Minnesota in decades, passing policies that will help Minnesotans build better lives for themselves and their families."
Hortman added that "the last two years are a shining example that Tim Walz is good at working with strong women in full collaboration to get things done."
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