A more obvious bait-and-switch has perhaps never been played in American politics. Walz may have humble, centrist roots. But since ascending the ranks of power in the Minnesota Democratic establishment, he has fully embraced the kind of woke policies that have alienated working-class voters across America.

Walz is a zealot of gender ideology. He made Minnesota a ‘safe haven’ for the medical transitioning of children. He signed a bill into law last year that allows the state to take custody of children whose parents refuse permission for their child to receive ‘gender-affirming care’ – that is, harmful experimental drugs and surgeries. As of this year, menstrual products must now be put in the boys’ bathrooms in all public schools, as per a law he championed. Tampons and sanitary towels must be available to all ‘menstruating students’, regardless of their gender, above the age of nine, the bill states.

Walz has also gone hard on racial identity politics.