No laughing matter

Gov. Walz needs to drop the comedy routine and make Minnesota competitive again.

In late May, while he was embarking on his national town hall tour, Gov. Tim Walz needled the Texas Legislature’s attempt to rein in their marijuana laws. “Texans, flee the nanny state and come up north to enjoy the land of the free.” Walz’s post on X suggested that the traditionally conservative and independent Texans might prefer Minnesota’s “Wild West” pot laws as the Lone Star State attempts to tap the brakes on full legalization. Unsurprisingly, the reaction was immediate and unkind to Walz for his lack of situational awareness.

In 1973, then-Gov. Wendell Anderson hoisted a northern pike on the cover of TIME magazine featuring “The Good Life in Minnesota.” It’s not uncommon for our governors to brag about our clean air and lakes, great schools, and friendly people. Now we are recruiting Texas pot smokers. So much for the clean air.

Governors often engage in a little fun to take a shot (particularly across the political aisle) at a competing state. Self-deprecating humor can be even more effective. Unfortunately for Walz, he wasn’t joking about Texas. Walz’s predecessor, Mark Dayton, used self-deprecating humor to his great advantage. Dayton is a very funny guy who is (often painfully) self-aware.

Last month, Walz joked, “Some of you know this. On the iPhone, they’ve got that little stock app. I added Tesla to it to give me a little boost during the day — $225 and dropping!” While taking part in a panel on CNN, investor Kevin O’Leary (aka Mr. Wonderful) lamented, “That poor guy didn’t check his portfolio and his own pension plan for the state,” noting that Minnesota’s State Board of Investment (chaired by Walz) owns 1.6 million shares of Tesla.

In 2021, Tesla moved its headquarters from Palo Alto, Calif. to Austin, Texas, citing California’s high taxes and loony regulatory environment. Minnesota has also lost jobs to Texas for the past 25 years. The warmer climate and access to cheaper land and lower labor costs are understandable, if not comforting, to policymakers in Minnesota. But the ultimate battle is for the future homeowner.

John Phelan, an economist at Center of the American Experiment, has shown through U.S. Census Bureau data that Minnesotans want to flee to Texas more than any other non-contiguous state. Phelan has been studying the trend of losing middle- and high-income earners to other states for years, noting, “Younger Minnesotans, on balance, are leaving to make their lives elsewhere. So, too, are middle-class Minnesotans. This is unfortunate on a personal level, but it is also bad news for the state’s economic future.”

When he was running for vice president, Walz presented Minnesota as a test case for progressive social policies. He scolded Republican governors for their stances on abortion, men in women’s sports and spaces, taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal immigrants, and pot legalization.

Minnesota’s governor should be our biggest cheerleader and recruiter. Those who left because they could get a job and an affordable house in a safe neighborhood (in Texas) are not returning unless they can find those opportunities here. Stern lectures about eccentric social policies don’t seem to be moving things too far in the right direction.