Fifteen men clad in football jerseys took the stage at the Democratic National Convention as the Mankato West High School fight song played.
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Former players from Mankato West High School, where Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota coached football, at the Democratic convention Wednesday night.
Over a few minutes on Wednesday night, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota was described as a “Dad in plaid,” a hunter who braves 10-degree weather to hang out in a deer stand and a guy who could push your car out of a snowbank.
And then the organizers of the Democratic National Convention, who have been working hard to depict Mr. Walz as a paragon of friendly masculinity, brought out the really big guns.
It happened when Benjamin C. Ingman, one of Mr. Walz’s former students, was praising Mr. Walz’s virtues as coach of his seventh-grade basketball and track teams at Mankato West High School.
“Coach Walz got us excited about what we might achieve together,” Mr. Ingman said. “He believed in us, and he helped us believe in each other. And his leadership stuck. That track team went on to win a state title, just like the football team.”
Mr. Ingman took a little pause.
“Speaking of which,” he said, “come on out, Scarlets.”
At that, 15 men who appeared more or less middle-aged, many of them clad in football jerseys of varying degrees of tightness over their jeans or khakis, filed out to flank Mr. Ingman on either side of the stage as the Mankato West High School fight song played.
No. 72 waved his arms in the air. No. 34 pumped his fist. No. 13 bobbed up and down ever so slightly, like he was just about to run a play.
(John Considine, who played for Mankato West, said the players represented a number of Walz-era teams.)
Democrats face a considerable gender gap when it comes to male voters: The most recent national poll by The New York Times and Siena College found former President Donald J. Trump leading Vice President Kamala Harris among men by nearly 20 percentage points.
They are turning to Mr. Walz for an alternative to Mr. Trump’s embrace of hypermasculine culture, celebrating his identity as the kind of guy who can coach a team, fix a car and happily serve as vice president to a woman president.
His former Mankato players didn’t talk on the convention stage, but they did grin, broadly, under the Wednesday night lights of the United Center. And Democrats in the hall roared with delight.
Eli Tan and Alan Blinder contributed reporting.
Jess Bidgood is a managing correspondent for The Times and writes the On Politics newsletter, a guide to the 2024 election and beyond. More about Jess Bidgood
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Source: nytimes.com
