Tim Walz: Kamala Goes With The Coach

Kamala Harris has chosen one of the many white men she was considering for her VP slot, and it’s Tim Walz. It’s not that young men won’t support a female candidate (our survey showed that young men would support an unnamed female candidate running on the basic Democratic platform over Trump by a margin of 46 to 35 points), but it’s a big country, and adding some diversity to the Democratic ticket will likely increase the strength of the ticket. Walz has also been an effective messenger in support of a Black and Asian American woman president.

We don’t have any polling data on how Tim Walz performs with young men (sorry!). But, we think he could have special resonance for this cohort for one particular reason: he was a high school football coach. 

In our survey of young men, sports coaches had a net favorability of 24 points (48% say they view coaches as “in favor of men like me,” and 24% disagree). The Democratic party had a net favorability of just 5 points (39 to 34), and “mainstream culture” nets out to 0. These numbers were even higher for black young men (60-15). And the Aspen Institute has found that the people parents are most likely to trust to “develop life skills” for their kids are coaches (77%, compared to 45% for national leaders or 67% for their schools).

Author Richard Reeves has pointed out the importance of coaches in schools, who are likely to serve as mentors to boys, both while coaching and while serving as teachers.

Not every young man plays, or even likes, sports. But they clearly have an outsize impact in their ability to make a positive impact in people’s lives. There’s a reason that Hoosiers, Any Given Sunday, A League of Their Own, Win Win and countless others are classic movies. Coaches can inspire us to be our best selves. We look forward to Walz doing that for young men, and being a strong messenger for progressives.