Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz campaigned across Pennsylvania over two days this week on behalf of his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, at a time the state is increasingly viewed as the “must-win” state in the 2024 presidential race.

“Pennsylvania is probably THE state this year,” says David Schultz of Hamline University. “Whoever wins Pennsylvania is probably going to win the presidency.”

The most recent polling average from RealClearPolitics shows the state as a dead heat, 47.2% to 47.2%.  The tight race continues to raise questions about why Harris bypassed Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate and chose Walz instead.

“The idea that a Minnesota governor would appeal to an undecided voter in Pennsylvania is a pretty long stretch of political strategy,” Schultz says.

Walz mostly spoke to small groups that already tend to support Harris. He frequently went on the attack against Trump.

“When we were in Detroit a couple weeks ago, the vice president and I, we got out and there were 15,000 people there,” Walz said at one stop. “Donald Trump said those were AI-generated. You know what won’t be AI-generated? All those votes!”

Walz also did his best to make a Minnesota appeal to Pennsylvania voters.

“We have a lot in common, Pennsylvania and Minnesota,” he said. “You know how to deal with snow here.”

The Minnesota governor’s stops were carefully choreographed with the media kept mostly at arm’s length with few opportunities for questions. That includes questions about a subpoena the governor received from the U.S. House Education and Workforce Development Committee seeking documents in the $250 million Feeding Our Future fraud case.

Walz isn’t accused of wrongdoing, but his education department oversaw the program where the fraud involving federal funds occurred. Schultz says there are both political and legitimate legal reasons why the subpoena was issued several months into the committee’s investigation.

“It’s an interesting coincidence that as we’re getting into the general elections, barely two months before the election, that Congress now subpoenas him,” Schultz says. “That’s the political aspect. But there clearly is underneath if you wanted to read it in a non-cynical way, a legitimate purpose for Congress to subpoena the governor and find out what happened.”

The committee gave Walz and the Minnesota Department of Education until Sept. 18 to provide the requested documents. So far, the committee has not requested Walz to testify.