There’s a certain mindset in the upper Midwest in general (mostly in Boomer, Gen X, and less but still present in elder Millennials) where a large portion of our “independents“ are people for whom their centrism isn’t ideological politically, but is more opposed to a single party having all of the control or more open to outsiders like Jesse Ventura. I have seen many of these individuals (I live in MN) and talked to them and their opinions are fairly left leaning, but because there is a fear that they may not even recognize, they will vote cross party on a ticket because they see that is some sort of balance.
I think Walz can still appeal to those individuals.
That’s why they won’t let him campaign in Davenport, Iowa