Vice President Kamala Harris announced on Tuesday her choice for running mate: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D).
Walz became wildly popular thanks to his viral “weird” take on Republicans that exploded into the national discourse in recent weeks.
But there is another specific aspect regarding the politician, particularly his choice in beverage, that has the internet a little twisted.
After a week of making fun of former President Donald Trump’s running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) for his take on Diet Mountain Dew, liberals are now praising the everyman energy of the beverage.
That’s because Walz is a massive fan of Diet Mountain Dew. And since Harris’s decision, users on social media are highlighting numerous posts from Walz flagging his love for the oddly specific drink.
“Tim Walz is also a huge Diet Mountain Dew fan,” one user wrote.
Over the years, Walz has made his love of the carbonated drink well known. In 2017, the governor uploaded a picture of himself holding a can of the drink, adding, “life is good.”
In 2018, Walz uploaded a smiling selfie alongside a can of Diet Mountain Dew. Another post from 2022 showed Waltz pulling a can out of a drink cooler, while another post from 2023 had Walz joking that he would gladly drink 52oz of Diet Mountain Dew for breakfast.
But whereas Walz’s was quickly embraced, Vance raised eyebrows after cracking a bizarre joke at a Trump rally in July in which he suggested that liberals found everything racist.
“I had a Diet Mountain Dew yesterday and one today,” Vance said. “I’m sure they’re going to call that racist too.”
The joke, needless to say, was met largely with confusion and silence. Walz, or anyone, it appears, has not called drinking Diet Mountain Dew racist.
Just last week, Vance praised Diet Mountain Dew during an on the right-wing broadcast network Newscast.
“This is the good stuff here,” Vance said. “High caffeine, low calorie.”
Still, Walz’s love of the drink seems to be getting more positive attention.
“The thing about a potential Vance-Walz matchup is that it would be a clash of Diet Mountain Dew guys and I’m not sure anyone likes Diet Mountain Dew more than Tim Walz,” X user Sam Brodey said.
Others speculated that Vance’s support of the drink could only harm it, whole Walz’s love of Diet Mountain Dew would undoubtedly see the soft drink explode in value.
Although a Diet Mountain Dew battle has yet to be officially declared, as some noted, it’s now an absolute guarantee that a Diet Dew drinker will be our next vice president
Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.