Report: Walz May Win the Election With Finger Guns

Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.

Walz Watch: Body Language and Deep Fake Edition

New York Magazine is taking a closer look at how and why Tim Walz’s body language may play a key role in connecting with people—even from a distance. According to features writer Kerry Howley, he knows how to work a finger gun (“at a middle distance, he will deploy two finger guns; at a shorter distance, one”), he knows when and how to point like a pro (“‘I love you,’ someone shouts from the crowd. Walz points straight at him. ‘You love America!’”), and he is definitely the guy you want on our charades team (“It is difficult to make policy physical, but Walz could mime the agenda if pressed. He has a lexicon of moves.”). The story also covers Walz lore from his teaching days and time repping rural Minnesota in Congress, but it’s Howley’s understanding of political theater and staged communication that make this a fun read.  

(Folks will now be able to analyze Walz’s physical mastery more regularly leading up to the election, as NBC News reports that Walz has been released from his “bubble,” with plans to stop by The View and The Daily Show in the coming weeks.) 

Meanwhile, on the dark side of the web, aka Twitter/X, Qanon accounts have been circulating a deep fake video of a former student accusing the VP candidate of sexual assault. It’s not real; it’s AI from a dude, DotNetYoutube, who Washington Post reporter Will Sommer says is “an up-and-coming new player in the ‘making things up’ corner of online Trumpworld,” noting that the “appearance of a cursor in a witness's key emails” suggests that “DocNetYoutube wrote it himself.”   

Red Guy Living in a Sea of Blue Is More Than He Seems

Shawn Holster is just a Republican living in south Minneapolis, and that’s hard, you know? In this (kinda, supposed to feel-good?) story from Winter Keefer at MinnPost, Holster says he wants folks to know that he gets along with his liberal neighbor, hasn’t experienced any property damage since decorating his lawn (“I’ve had a Trump sign in my front yard… and I haven’t had a single brick through my window”), and he, like many Republicans, is “just like you. We have the same concerns.”

But what the story only mentions briefly is that Holster isn’t just some friendly guy with GOP signage on his lawn—he’s president and chair of the Minneapolis Republican Party. One of his first moves as leader in 2023 was to host a "Rock’n Barbecue" party in the former Clubhouse Jager space. The North Loop spot, owned by Julius DeRoma, closed after it was discovered that he had donated to ex-Ku Klux Klan grand wizard (and surprise Jill Stein supporter) David Duke's 2016 U.S. Senate campaign. Holster told Racket at the time that he thought DeRoma’s support of Duke “was a dumb idea,” but also assured us that his org’s "calendar doesn't include doing Klan shit anytime soon." 

Holster is also a former political candidate; in 2022 he ran for District 63’s Minnesota Senate seat, ultimately losing by 71 points to 25-year-old DFL rival Zaynab Mohamed. A quick perusal of his Twitter account suggests he’s anti-trans, thinks the Strib is run by communists, and is a voting truther—yup, sounds like some bipartisan ”same concerns” to me!

A Sweet Labor Story About Sugar Beet Farmers

In 1973, the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Growers Association purchased the American Crystal Sugar Co., making them not only the biggest sugar beet producer in the country but also the first sugar beet agricultural cooperative. In this labor story from Workday Magazine, Amie Stager checks in with Mark Froemke, president of the West Minnesota Area Labor Council/Red River Valley, AFL-CIO, who has been working in the sugar beet industry since the 1970s. “I never lost that, the thrill watching them harvest sugar beets,” he confesses. Froemke also reflects on the ACS’s 22-month worker lockout from 2011 to 2013, possible changes in child labor laws in the meatpacking industry, and the challenges of advocating for workers’ rights in a red region.

37 Years Ago Today, the Twins Opened Game 1 of the World Series

This World Series opening segment has it all: an aerial shot of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome; liberal use of the Field of Dreams soundtrack; Al Michaels describing the World Series as a “thoroughly movable feast, and your town never knows it's coming your way until days before.” I wasn’t even living here when this happened, yet I feel nostalgia watching it.