Gov. Tim Walz picked up copies of literary classics including "Lord of the Flies" and "Of Mice and Men" off a table of books Wednesday before reaching for Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale," a dystopian novel about a patriarchal group that overthrows the federal government.

"We are keeping this fully in the fiction section of Minnesota," Walz said, holding up his selections before tucking them inside a Little Free Library, a book exchange box he parked in the lobby outside his office.

"Let's be very clear," Minnesota's Democratic governor said. "These books are banned in the state of Florida. That's where freedom goes to die."

The book event, intended to highlight March as Reading Month in Minnesota, was the latest in a series of acts and national media appearances by Walz that promote Minnesota as the progressive antithesis to Republican-led states like Florida, and others, that are passing expansive conservative laws.

Earlier this month, Walz called governors of states moving to restrict gender-affirming care for transgender children "bullies" as he signed a symbolic executive order protecting such care in Minnesota. Late last year he floated the idea of running ads to recruit teachers from Florida, after a new law there imposed restrictions on some instruction about race and sexuality.