CHICAGO — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accepted the Democratic vice presidential nomination Wednesday, showcasing his appeal on the third night of the Democratic National Convention as a candidate who can combine a middle-class image with a fairly progressive record and effectively attack the Republican alternative.
A native of small-town Nebraska, Walz is a former high school teacher, coach and Army National Guardsman. Presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris tapped him just two weeks ago to be her running mate.
In his speech to delegates gathered at the United Center, an introduction to millions of Americans, Walz argued that Democratic policies are more in line with the values of the country’s heartland than those of Republicans, led by presidential candidates former President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.
“That is what this election is all about: freedom,” he said.
Republicans are invoking freedom to impose restrictions on reproductive rights, allowing corporations to pollute the environment and allowing banks to exploit customers, he said.
“But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to create a better life for yourself and the people you love, the freedom to make your own health care decisions, the freedom to let your kids go to school without fear of being shot,” he said.
Coach Walz
The next night, after former President Barack Obama authenticated Walz’s style by lightly poking fun at his worn flannel shirts, other speakers sought to emphasize Walz’s image as a stereotypically no-nonsense upper Midwesterner.
Minnesota’s senior senator Amy Klobuchar and Benjamin Ingman, a former student and neighbor of Walz’s, introduced the vice presidential candidate.
“Tim Walz is the kind of guy you can count on to push you out of a snowbank,” Ingman said, referring to the neighborly duty of freeing a vehicle that gets stuck after a weighty snowfall. “I know that because Tim Walz pushed me out of a snowbank.”
As Ingman spoke, former members of Walz’s football teams took the stage, wearing the red and white jerseys of the Mankato West High School football team.
Klobuchar praised Walz’s progressive policies as governor — signing bills that provided paid leave, provided school meals and cut taxes for families.
She also noted Walz’s folksy charm and humble origins, a rarity at the highest levels of American politics.
“A former football coach knows how to level the playing field,” Klobuchar said. “And a former public school teacher knows how to coach the likes of J.D. Vance.”
The topic of freedom
Walz argued that Democrats wanted to expand freedom, which was a central theme of Harris’ campaign, while Republicans worked to restrict rights.
He mentioned the fertility treatments he and his wife, Gwen, used to conceive their two children. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the nation’s abortion law, some Republicans also opposed in vitro fertilization, a common fertility treatment. Gwen Walz explained this week that the Walzes used a different fertility treatment that is less controversial among anti-abortion advocates.
Still, Walz said the pain of infertility is “hell” and, in an emotional moment, turned his attention to Gwen and her children, Hope and Gus, who were in the crowd, telling them they were his “whole world.”
The crowd cheered as the emotional faces of the Walz family appeared on screens at the United Center.
Walz has promoted his accomplishments as governor, including a free school meals program and expanding reproductive rights, saying they are consistent with customary American values.
“While other states were banning books from their schools, we were driving hunger out of ours,” he said. “We were also protecting reproductive freedom because in Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the choices they make. Even if we didn’t make those same decisions for ourselves, we have a golden rule: Mind your own damn business.”
Project 2025
campaign
Walz has sharply criticized the Republican agenda, including a more than 900-page proposal published by the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation.
Republicans, including Trump’s campaign, have tried to distance themselves from the document, which contains several provisions that Democrats have been eager to criticize.
Walz said it shows Republicans are willing to destroy Social Security and Medicare, repeal the popular health care law known as Obamacare and restrict abortion nationwide.
He described Republicans as out of touch with reality, extreme and — as he has said for weeks — weird.
“It’s a program that has served no one but the wealthiest and most extreme among us, and it’s a program that does nothing for our neighbors in need,” he said. “Is that any wonder? Absolutely.”
Walz wanted to portray Democrats as the party of common sense, including on the issue of guns.
As a veteran and hunter, Walz was informed about guns and supported gun rights. But he suggested there had to be limits that many Republicans did not accept.
“I believe in the Second Amendment,” he said. “But I also believe that our first responsibility is to keep our children safe.”
Call to action
As president, Harris said he would cut taxes for the middle class, cap the cost of medicine and “fight for the freedom to live the life you want to live.”
Using another element of his campaign speeches, Walz urged Democratic delegates in the audience to work tirelessly until Election Day.
Walz’s acceptance of the nomination emboldened a group of Minnesota Democratic delegates who stayed in the United Center for another 30 minutes after the program ended, chanting “USA,” “Harris-Walz,” “Minnesota” and other cries of joy.
In another tribute to their state, musicians John Legend and Sheila E. performed “Let’s Go Crazy” by Minnesota native Prince before Walz took the stage.
Oprah’s endorsement
Just before the ode to the waltz began, television talk show legend Oprah Winfrey, whose show had been broadcast from Chicago for decades, made a surprise appearance on the convention stage.
Winfrey made the case for Harris as a barrier-breaking candidate and a very decent person.
Winfrey, who has supported every Democratic presidential candidate since Obama in 2008 but said she is still an independent voter, urged undecided voters to vote based on the candidates’ character.
“Decency and respect are on the list in 2024,” she said. “And just common sense. Common sense says Kamala Harris and Tim Walz can give us decency and respect.”
She criticized Republicans under Trump.
“Let us choose loyalty to the Constitution over loyalty to one person,” she said.
She called for an inclusive vision of politics, rejecting Vance’s dismissive description of some Democratic voters as “childless cat women.”
“Contrary to what some people would have you believe, we’re not all that different from our neighbors,” she said. “When a house is burning down, we don’t ask about the race or religion of the owner. We don’t ask who his partner is or how he voted, no. We just try to do what we can to save it. And if the place belongs to a childless cat lady, well, we try to get rid of that cat, too.”
