Tim Walz campaigns in Las Vegas ahead of presidential debate

Vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz campaigned in Las Vegas ahead of the presidential debate on Tuesday.

Walz arrived in Las Vegas on Monday evening and made a stop Tuesday morning at the Park Towers at Hughes Center for a fundraiser, where he predicted Vice President Kamala Harris would show the American people that she’s ready to be president at the Tuesday night debate.

“Let’s just all be very clear, this is the most qualified person who’s ready to do this job,” Walz said.

Coming from a stop in Reno where wildfires are raging in the Washoe Valley, Walz said there is a sense of neighborliness that comes through in Nevada as firefighters work to combat the fire.

“Those folks up there were serving their neighbors,” Walz said.

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo had issued a declaration of emergency due to the Davis Fire on Sunday. The governor’s office reported 5,000 acres in northern Nevada had burned and caused the evacuation of about 20,000 people.

Democratic Party operatives turned what was going to be a rally into a collection point for people to bring in things for those who have been displaced, he said. Helping people is “why you do this work,” he said.

“It’s a challenge. Folks are out of their homes, some folks have lost everything they had. Those are things that we work together to get done,” Walz said.

Harris’ running mate also highlighted the need for getting out the vote and that the margin between the two candidates is razor thin. He said the last election was won with about 40,000 votes spread over some battleground states, including Nevada.

“We know if we win here, the path for Donald Trump becomes much, much more difficult,” Walz said. “The same goes for Georgia and North Carolina. These are pivotal states.”

Polls have shown Harris and Trump are neck-in-neck, but that Harris has lost some momentum from the initial boost of voter enthusiasm when she launched her campaign this summer. Walz called for the need to take that momentum and use the campaign resources to transfer the momentum into voter contact.

Walz also repeated the main talking points of the Democratic party about what is at stake in the election, highlighting the need for affordable housing and the need to protect abortion care.

“When do you get to be in a state where a small number of votes and the work that the folks in this room are doing could make the difference between what we don’t even want to imagine with Donald Trump getting back into the White House.”

Halee Dobbins, the Nevada state communications director for the RNC, called Walz a radical leftist governor in a statement regarding his visit. She repeated GOP criticisms of his record, including stocking school bathrooms with period products, and for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In stark contrast, President Donald J. Trump will fight to restore safety, security, and prosperity to every corner of the nation,” Dobbins said in the statement. “While Kamala Harris and Tim Walz cater to the Radical Left, President Trump remains committed to putting America first and protecting American values.”

After the fundraiser, which was hosted by gaming industry analyst Chris Grove and Kim Harvey, Walz and his daughter, Hope Walz, stopped at TIABI Coffee & Waffle in Las Vegas and greeted a few supporters in the small restaurant.

Walz ended his trip to Las Vegas around noon without taking questions from the press. As part of his tour of the Sun Belt states, Walz next went to Arizona for multiple campaign stops.

A previous version of this story included a photo caption that misspelled Nevada State Treasurer Zach Conine’s name.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.