Tim Walz, JD Vance, and the Myth of the Midwest

What is the Midwest of the United States? When presidential candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris selected JD Vance of Ohio and Tim Walz of Minnesota as their vice president candidates they did so in part because the Midwest, specifically Wisconsin and Michigan, is a strategic battleground for the presidency. The belief was that a Midwesterner from one state would appeal to voters across all the Midwest.  Arguably, Midwest values and appeals will be on display October 1, during the vice-presidential debate which, oddly, will be held in New York City and not Detroit or Milwaukee.

Somewhere along the way someone needs to explain to the east coast that there is not one Midwest. Instead, it is twelve separate states, and placing a debate in NYC is perhaps not the smartest way to demonstrate empathy for the Midwest voter.

There is a classic New Yorker Magazine cover depicting everything west of the Hudson River as flyover territory. We in the Midwest are one land of corn and soybeans, or at one point, cars, steel, iron, and manufacturing. The myth of the Midwest in part, is crafted by American folklore. Maybe it is Willa Cather’s O’Pioneers, Sinclair Lewis’ Babbitt, Philipp Meyer’s American Rust, or even Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer or Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio. These books evoke a literary Midwest ethos that for many geographically merges my part of the world together. Some might even place JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy within this literary genus. Yet a more than cursory review reveals broad diversity across among these states and people these books depict. George Babbitt is not the same person as Tom Sawyer.

The US Census Bureau defines the Midwest as that geographic area west of the Appalachians, east of the Rockies, and bordered by the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers. It is twelve separate states broken into two regions. But even this definition is not fixed. Pennsylvania, by Census Bureau standards, is not the Midwest. Yet in appointing Walz or Vance, both Harris and Trump seem to have forgotten that. Parts of Pennsylvania west of the Appalachians seem Midwest to some. But certainly, the eastern part of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia are on the East Coast. Many in Minnesota view Michigan as back east because it is in a different time zone, and few in South or North Dakota consider Appalachia Midwest.

The Midwest is more than geography. It is politics and political values, and each state is different. Minnesota is as liberal as Ohio has become conservative. Some may see no difference between Minnesota and Wisconsin. For years I taught a class comparing Minnesota and Wisconsin politics and drew contrasts. Since the 1970s the two states have moved politically and economically in different directions and have adopted different perspectives on a variety of issues ranging anywhere from abortion, welfare reform, social welfare policy, and education. We are different not just because we cheer for the Vikings or the Packers.

Each state in the Midwest is a blend of immigration patterns colliding with its geography and economy to produce a unique political culture. But even within each state, there is diversity. Rural Minnesota is to the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul as Detroit is to the Upper Peninsula. Or Madison, Wisconsin is to the northern part of that state. Franklin County Ohio votes far differently than Hamilton County Ohio. In 2022 Tim Walz won only twelve of Minnesota's 87 counties when he was reelected as governor. The counties he won were urban, the counties he lost were mostly rural. To think that Walz would appeal to other Midwesterners is naive. He does not even appeal to all Minnesotans—only 52% voted for him.

There is no one undivided Midwest. It is a myth. Each state has its own politics, and there is a need to appreciate that politically and geographically, and not campaign in a cookie cutter fashion. As the 2024 Presidential election reaches fever pitch, and Trump and Harris concentrate on a few swing states in the Midwest. They need to remember that there is not one single Midwest and there is not one atypical Midwest voter.