Tim Walz and the ‘Folksy’ Science Behind Sounding All-American

If you created a word cloud from all Tim Walz’s interviews over the last few weeks, the word ‘weird’ would be featured prominently, as would ‘football,’ ‘Minnesota,’ and maybe ‘white guy tacos.’ But one word above all would stand out among the vice presidential candidate's vernacular: ‘folksy.’

Walz’s supporters use that term: A tweet from screenwriter Adam Best praising the native-Nebraskan’s “organic, folksy, straightforward vibe,” for example, got 25,000 likes.