In Nebraska towns where VP candidate Tim Walz grew up, local reaction to him is mixed (2024)

BUTTE, Neb. — ScottNicolaus held up two reporters' business cards sitting near the cash register at Firehouse Bakery and Cafe.

One card was from the Minnesota Star Tribune. The other, the Los Angeles Times.

These days, Barb and Scott Nicolaus never know which reporter will walk through the door of their Butte, Nebraska, cafe next. One of the first reporters was from the New York Times, and they keep arriving from outlets big and small from all around the world.

When the phone rings, it could be someone ordering bread or someone from NBC News.

The town of 286 peoplenear the South Dakota border in northeast Nebraska was thrust into the international spotlight by one of its former residents: Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

“It put us on the map,” Barb said.

Butte got a shoutout last week when Walz took the stage at the Democratic National Convention.

"I grew up in Butte, Nebraska, a town of 400 people," Walz said. "I had 24 kids in my high school class. And none of them went to Yale."

Barb watched the convention on TV at the cafe with a reporter from Germany. She watched the entire thing, hoping to catch a glimpse of Darlene Walz, the governor's mother who still lives in Butte.

Barb didn't spot her, but someone else managed to grab a screenshot of Darlene — Barb has it on her phone.

Butte is a small rural community with no stoplights. In Barb's firefighter-themed cafe, people sit and chat about farming. It's a place where breakfast is served all day, the menu includes a Chinese buffet, and they occasionally whip up cotton candy for kids.

A Donald Trump bobblehead sits on a shelf near the cash register. In Boyd County, where Butte is located, 87.4% of voters cast their ballots for Trump in 2020.

In Butte, neighbors help each other and don't expect anything in return, Barb said. Her experienceis similar to the oneWalz has described as his upbringing in rural Nebraska.

"Growing up in a small town like that, you learn how to take care of each other," Walz said in his convention speech. "That family down the road, they may not think like you do, they may not pray like you do. They may not love like you do. But they’re your neighbors. And you look out for them. And they look out for you."

The day after Walz gave that speech, no cars were parked along the main street of Butte as afternoon faded into evening. Near the cafe along Thayer Street, several Trump signs were planted in the ground and a Trump flag hung on a flagpole under the U.S. flag.

Barb doesn't know Walz personally, although she said he's eaten at her cafe.

"It's amazing to think that he did live here, his family is here and he has that chance," Barb said.

But will Barb vote for him?

"Probably not," Barb said.

In speeches and campaign ads, Walz has claimed Nebraska and touted the values that its people taught him. But in the Nebraska towns where Walz was raised, not everyone is ready to claim him.

"I don't know if it will sway people or not," Barb said of Walz's roots.

"If he happened to get in, I wonder what everyone would say."

Other Nebraskans like Patricia Jones are enthusiastically supporting Walz. Jones taught at Alliance (Nebraska) High School with Tim and Gwen Walz. She helped Gwen as she was beginning her teaching career, they attended the same Lutheran church and Gwen would stop by Jones' house to spend time with her family.

Tim's hair might be whiter and there's less of it, but Jones said other than that, the couple hasn't changed very much.

Jones said her friends are excited about Walz, but that's not true of the whole town. In 2020, 77% of voters Box Butte County, where Alliance is located, went for Trump.

"It's very politically divided," Jones said. "If you drive around, you see a lot of Trump signs. So I'm sure that there will continue to be some hostility.”

Instead of hostility, Jones said Walz and Kamala Harris have brought happiness and fun to their campaign, a refreshing change from even a few weeks ago.

“We all used to get along,” Jones said. “We all didn't used to care this much about politics. We need to go back to that time where it doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or a Republican, we want what's best for the United States.”

Walz was born in West Point, Nebraska, and spent most of his childhood in Valentine, Nebraska, before his family moved to Butte for his sophom*ore year of high school. After graduating from Butte High School in 1982, he served in the Nebraska Army National Guard for more than a decade.

Walz earned a degree from Chadron State College, and he and his wife taught school in Alliance before they moved to her native state of Minnesota in 1996.

In Alliance, people remember Walz as an inspirational teacher, a kind neighbor and the football coach who did conditioning drills with his players as penance after a drunken driving arrest in 1995.

Hours before Walz gave his speech at the convention, former co-workers, students and neighbors gathered at an Alliance park to support Coach Walz.

Two men in cowboy hats held up a banner decorated with blue balloons that read "Congratulations Coach Walz!!" People sat in lawn chairs to hear stories about Walz's time in Alliance, despite an incoming storm that would bring rain, lighting and a rainbow.

The park was down the street from the Alliance High School football stadium. Former students said Walz welcomed them every day with a big vibrant smile and a greeting of "I'm glad you're here."

In the mid-1990s, Mike and Rose Pancost lived next to Gwen and Tim Walz in Alliance.

"Tim was friendly, kind, respectful, practical, genuine and a man who was truly interested in teaching and learning," Rose said. "He was a down-to-earth guy who didn't let coaching football inflate his ego like it does some."

Tim did, however, harass Mike about being a Colorado Buffaloes fan, Mike said.

But Mike and Rose both described Tim and Gwen as caring neighbors who would attend neighborhood barbeques and dote on the Pancosts' children.

"He had as much fun on our boy's second birthday as the birthday boy himself," Rose said. "Tim introduced Silly String and it was all over the deck, our son, his sister, along with lots of giggles."

Mike said he's followed Walz's political career from neighbor to governor. After George Floyd was killed, Mike said they prayed for Walz, knowing he was probably under unbelievable pressure. Mike said knowing that Walz could be the next vice president of the United States is the definition of surreal.

"We knew that he was interested in things bigger than Alliance, but to imagine that this was happening, nope, would have never imagined at the time that would happen,” he said.

Mike is planning to vote for the man who once harassed him about his football fandom. He said it's hard for any candidate to be the perfect candidate for every voter.

"For me personally, the values that him and Kamala talk about tick more boxes for me," he said.

In Valentine, where Walz's father was once school superintendent, people weren't eager to talk about what boxes Walz might or might not tick for them.

Recently, World-Herald reporters walked around Valentine hoping to find local reaction to Walz's candidacy but no one wanted to talk about the potential vice president. At least not for publication.

Most made a face when Walz’s name was mentioned or started laughing and gently shaking their heads. The reasons for their reaction varied. Some were tired of the reporters who had inundated their town, some said they'd never met Walz and others disagreed with his politics.

People were friendly, but preferred to direct the conversation with reporters toward driving through the Sandhills or nearby Smith Falls State Park.

In 2020, 87% of voters in Cherry County, where Valentine is located, picked Trump.

Randall Adkins,a political science professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, said Walz being from Nebraska probably plays better outside of Nebraska than it does within the state.

He said those Midwestern values are appealing to voters outside Nebraska but inside Nebraska, many minds are made up.

“Things are baked in," Adkins said. "It’s hard to change people’s attitudes at this point because they’ve known the candidates so well.”

Valentine, Butte and Alliance are all within Nebraska's 3rd Congressional District where registered Republicans outnumber Democrats 264,320 to 73,032, according to data from the Nebraska Secretary of State.

“He’s on the blue side, they’re on the red side," Adkins said. "That’s not going to change. People have those attitudes and they’re just not going to cross over, even for somebody that’s from the state.”

Where Walz's Cornhusker roots could matter, Adkins said, is the 2nd Congressional District. The district includes Omaha’s Douglas County, areas of Sarpy County as well as Saunders County, and has a fairly even split of registered Republicans and Democrats.

Even then, Adkins said he doubted that Walz will be the deciding factor for voters.

No matter what, Adkins said, this election will be close.