CHICAGO — It was only a matter of time before Republicans went negative on Tim Walz — about hotdish.
The only problem? Walz’s former colleagues in the Minnesota delegation had already beaten them to it.
“White guy tacos, I guess that’s a thing,” Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., said at a GOP counter-programming event at Trump International Hotel and Tower here. That was in reference to a recent comment the Minnesota governor made in a YouTube conversation with his presidential campaign running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, about a very plain recipe he prepares for tacos — “pretty much ground beef and cheese.”
Donalds then dished, turning up the heat on Walz. “Except Tim Walz even lied about that. Because he won Al Franken’s cook-off for tacos. Actually making good ones. With green chiles. The point of it all is that we have to be transparent about what matters in the lives of the American people.”
Leaving aside the sentiment that one cannot make a good taco with ground beef and cheese, and that green chiles (thinking canned variety here) automatically taste good, let’s unwrap some of the ingredients of Donalds’ cries for transparency — and green chiles.
The Minnesota congressional delegation’s annual hotdish cook-off was started in 2011 by former Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn.
Hotdish, for the uninitiated, is a casserole typically comprised of a combination of meat, starch and vegetable, some of which would be considered creative, or unholy. Ground beef, tater tots, frozen peas, canned fried onions, all manner and consistency of cheese. And that does not even take into account the dessert versions.
Franken, seeking to promote Minnesota’s culinary and bipartisan vibes, got things rolling and the tradition has continued. But even Minnesota nice has some limits, as when Walz kept racking up wins.
In 2015, Franken felt he had no alternative but to go negative. “‘Tim Walz is going for a three-peat here and it’s kind of obnoxious,’ Franken joked after the two-time winner wondered aloud whether he had any room left in his office for another award,” HoH writer Warren Rojas reported at the time.
But in a warning about the dangers of overconfidence, Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum took top honors that year for a dish “with a combination of savory ground turkey, cruciferous greens, meaty mushrooms and nutty wild rice bolstered by just a hint of cinnamon,” Rojas wrote.
Walz would have to wait another year for his three-peat glory — and the source of Donalds’ ire.
“This year’s winning dish was ‘Tim’s Turkey Taco Tot Hotdish’ by Rep. Tim Walz. Last year’s winner, Rep. Betty McCollum, had to settle for second place for her ‘Making Hotdish Great Again,’” then-CQ-Roll Call writer Alex Gangitano wrote.
Walz’s multiple wins at this point were causing much heartburn among his colleagues.
“‘I feel neglected again,’ said Rep. Rick Nolan. ‘Blame Walz,’ Franken replied,” Gangitano reported.
