Walz was super annoying during covid. He never bothered considering metrics or infection rates, it was all about following the progressive states with various mandates and had no correlation with how Minnesota was doing. Minnesotans were doing just fine with masking and being careful, to the point where the narrative was all about how responsible they were. But when mandates starting dropping around the country, he hopped right on board. It was clearly a sign of solidarity and had nothing to do with the "science" at the time. I remember wondering why he did it, but then realizing that he had to in order to align himself with the progressive states instead of with the conservative ones. I didn't appreciate the authoritarianism, especially when it was clearly a political move.