By STEVE KARNOWSKI

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Democratic vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, his wife, Gwen, and their son, Gus, went to a polling place in St. Paul on a crisp fall Wednesday morning to cast their ballots early.

It was the first time voting for Gus, who just turned 18.

“I’m excited about it,” Walz told reporters on his way in to the Ramsey County Elections office.

Walz reportedly stood with Gus as they fed their ballots into the tabulation machine. An election worker called out “first-time voter” and the room erupted in cheers. The governor and son then high-fived each other.

Speaking briefly to reporters afterward, and sporting a red “I voted” sticker on his lapel, Walz called the election “a chance to turn the page on the chaos of Donald Trump, and a new way forward.”

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Walz thanked the former president’s longest-serving chief of staff, retired Gen. John Kelly, for “showing the courage to come forward” and warn the world about Trump’s “descention into madness.” Kelly’s comments came in interviews published Tuesday in The New York Times and The Atlantic.

“Look, Donald Trump made it very clear that this is an election about Donald Trump taking full control of the military to use against his political enemies, taking full control of the Department of Justice to prosecute those who disagree with him, taking full control of the media on what is told and what is told to the American public,” Walz said.

Walz also said he had “nothing to say” about reports that he was the target of Russian disinformation efforts but added that “it’s very clear that” Russian President Vladimir “Putin wants Donald Trump to win; Donald Trump wants Putin to win.”

Minnesota started early in-person voting on Sept. 20 but the governor has been on the campaign trail most of the time since Vice President Kamala Harris picked him as her running mate. Tim and Gwen Walz also voted early at the same office in 2022, when they were joined by their daughter, Hope, who was voting for the first time then but now lives in Montana.