Hope Walz, the daughter of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, responded brilliantly after Fox News personality Laura Ingraham attacked her for praising the mayoral primary victory of democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani in New York City on TikTok, saying Ingraham spends her time "not caring about other people.”
Mamdani handily defeated former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary last week, sparking racist and Islamophobic backlash from right-wingers who've claimed his policies would "destroy" the city.
The sheer success of Mamdani's grassroots campaign—focused predominantly on the city's affordability crisis—resonated with voters and Walz said on TikTok last week that his win shows just how popular progressive policies actually are with the general public.
She said:
"What happened yesterday in New York City happened because progressive policies are popular. I know it might surprise people but feeding kids lunch, providing child care, having accessible and functional public transportation, among many other things, are popular policies everywhere. They're popular everywhere."
"They're common sense. When you think about this country, you think about [how] it's a great place to grow up and raise a family and build your life, or at least that's how it should be. With that comes feeding kids lunch, allowing people to come to and from work in a timely, efficient, affordable manner, providing people child care while they go to work."
"All of that is common sense and it's popular. I've said this since the beginning—it's all messaging. You just have to message it right and there you go, bingo. We saw it and it's honestly pretty exciting that it is popular and you can win on it because we've all known this so now we just have to go with it."
You can hear what she said in the video below.
A miffed Ingraham played a snippet of Walz's video on The Ingraham Angle shortly afterward and remarked:
“You just lost about 100,000 brain cells watching that soundbite. Sweetie, if they were popular everywhere, Trump would not be president."
You can hear what she said in the video below.
Walz later followed up with a video calling out Ingraham and Fox News' coverage, saying:
"Apparently [Ingraham] had a whole segment about that [her TikTok video] and I come away from that feeling sad for her, genuine sadness."
"There are people that are willing to come on national TV and with their whole chest admit that they don’t care about feeding kids, or helping people get to work, or providing child care for people that are reproducing and creating our country and [world’s] future.”
“Genuinely, I feel sad.I don’t know how you go through your day just not caring about other people. If you actually watch the video, the point went right over Ms. Laura's head. The polling is there. A lot of these issues are largely popular and/or could be largely popular. The left just needs to message it."
"That's what I was saying and I don't know if it was on purpose or who knows but it went right over her head. They always go to the most typical comeback and it's just so boring. I genuinely feel sad for her. Get well soon, Laura. It must be a miserable life, truly."
You can hear what she said in the video below.
Many praised her for speaking out—and criticized Ingraham themselves.
@flakever/TikTok
@shoutyourcause/TikTok
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@hammockmama/TikTok
@iowateacher3719/TikTok
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Despite what Ingraham may claim, progressive policies are indeed popular.
In fact, the nonpartisan Levy Economics Institute of Bard College pointed out in analysis shortly after President Donald Trump won November's election that voters backed progressive policies despite his victory.
For example, Alaska, Missouri, and Nebraska all voted for Trump but nonetheless "introduced measures requiring employers to provide paid sick leave to workers." Additionally, Alaska and Missouri "passed measures to increase their minimum wage to $15/hour (in 2027 and 2026, respectively) and adjust them with the cost-of-living thereafter (a similar measure had already passed in Nebraska in 2022)."
Voters also "overwhelmingly supported measures to protect reproductive rights and the right to an abortion" in Arizona, Colorado, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, and Nevada, and in some states, "the right to an abortion is now a state constitutional right."
To cite another example, while the think tank noted that school choice is a "signature Republican policy," Kentucky, Colorado, and Nebraska rejected measures "to amend the state constitutions and allow state money to go to private schools."
@Donald_from_HI/X
Sheriff Jesse Watts-retired/Facebook
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