Eagan, Minnesota - Vice presidential candidate Tim Walz recently shared his first public statement after he and Kamala Harris lost the 2024 presidential race.

On Friday evening, Walz gave a speech during an event at Eagan High School, where he vowed to "defend the progress" the state has made under his leadership from Donald Trump, who may seek to tear some of it down.

"The other side spent a lot of time campaigning and talking about and promising that they would leave things up to the states," Walz argued. "I'm willing to take them at their word for that.

"But the moment they try and bring a hateful agenda to this state, I'm going to stand ready to stand up and fight," he added.

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Despite him and Harris suffering a crushing defeat to Trump – who managed to win all seven battleground states, flipping five for Republicans – Walz said he is "more motivated" and "fired up" to keep fighting, and his state will continue to represent that.

"Minnesota always has and always will be there to provide shelter from the storm," Walz said. "As long as I'm governor of Minnesota, we'll be a state that respects democracy, a place where we're proud of our civic debate and where we don't demonize people who disagree with us."

The governor's daughter, Hope Walz, shared a much more vitriolic reaction to the loss in a video shared on TikTok, in which she described it as "heartbreaking," admitted that she feels "angry," and argued that America "does not deserve Kamala Harris."

"These people have to live in their own skin – as in JD Vance and Donald Trump have to be JD Vance and Donald Trump and that is not a punishment I'd wish upon anybody but those two individuals," Hope added.

Tim Walz, who is currently in his second term as governor of Minnesota, did not reveal during his speech if he plans to run for re-election in two years.