CHICAGO — Minnesota Governor Tim Walz accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president on Wednesday, proving on the third night of the Democratic National Convention his appeal as a candidate who can combine a middle-class image with a relatively progressive record and effectively attack the Republican alternative.
A native of a miniature town in Nebraska, Walz is a former high school teacher, coach and Army National Guard member who was named by presidential candidate and Vice President Kamala Harris as her vice presidential running mate just over two weeks ago.
In his speech to delegates gathered at the packed United Center, which he introduced to millions of Americans, Walz argued that the Democrats’ policies were more aligned with their country’s values than those of the Republicans, led by former President Donald Trump and Ohio Senator JD Vance.
“That’s a big part of what this election is about: freedom,” he said.
Republicans are using their freedom to pass restrictions on reproductive rights, allow corporations to pollute the environment and allow banks to exploit their customers, he said.
“But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people you love, to make your own health care decisions, and to send your children to school without fear of being shot,” he said.
Coach Walz
A night after former President Barack Obama acknowledged Walz’s real style by lightly mocking his worn flannel shirts, other speakers sought to burnish Walz’s image as a stereotypically sensible Midwesterner.
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar and Benjamin Ingman, a former student and neighbor of Walz, introduced the vice presidential candidate.
“Tim Walz is the guy you can count on to push you out of a snow bank,” Ingman said, referring to the neighborly duty of freeing a stuck vehicle after a hefty snowfall. “I know this because Tim Walz pushed me out of a snow bank.”
As Ingman spoke, former members of the football teams coached by Walz took the stage wearing red and white Mankato West High School football jerseys.
Klobuchar praised Walz’s successes in progressive policies during his tenure as governor, including signing laws to ensure paid leave, provide school meals and cut taxes for families.
She also emphasized Walz’s popular appeal and humble background, which are unusual at the highest levels of U.S. politics.
“A former football coach knows how to level the playing field,” Klobuchar said. “And a former public school teacher knows how to teach people like JD Vance.”
Topic: Freedom
Walz argued that Democrats were seeking to expand freedom, a central theme of Harris’ campaign, while Republicans were working to restrict rights.
He mentioned fertility treatments he and his wife, Gwen, used to conceive their two children. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down federal abortion rights, some Republicans also opposed in vitro fertilization, a common fertility treatment. Gwen Walz clarified this week that the Walzes used a different fertility treatment that is not as controversial among anti-abortion activists.
Still, Walz said the pain of infertility was “hell,” and in an emotional moment, he greeted Gwen and children Hope and Gus in the crowd, telling them they were his “whole world.”
The crowd cheered as the emotional faces of the Walz family appeared on the screens at the United Center.
Walz touted his achievements as governor, including the free school lunch program and the expansion of reproductive rights, and portrayed them as consistent with classic American values.
“While other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours,” he said. “We also protected reproductive freedom because in Minnesota we respect our neighbors and their choices. Even though we wouldn’t make those choices for ourselves, we have one golden rule: Mind your own damn business.”
Project 2025
Walz sharply criticized the Republican agenda, including the more than 900-page proposal published by the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation.
Republicans, including the Trump campaign team, are trying to distance themselves from the document, which contains several provisions that have been sharply criticized by Democrats.
Walz said this shows that Republicans would gut Social Security and Medicare, repeal the popular Obamacare health care reform law and restrict abortion nationwide.
He characterized the Republicans as out of touch with reality, extreme and – and has been for weeks – strange.
“It’s an agenda that benefits no one but the wealthiest and most extreme among us, and it’s an agenda that benefits our neighbors in need,” he said. “Is that strange? Absolutely.”
Walz tried to position the Democrats as a party of common sense, including on the gun issue.
As a veteran and hunter, Walz was familiar with guns and supported gun rights, but he said there needed to be limits that many Republicans did not accept.
“I believe in the Second Amendment,” he said. “But I also believe that our first duty is to keep our children safe.”
Call to action
As president, he said, Harris would cut taxes for the middle class, curb drug costs and “stand up and fight for your freedom to live the life you want to live.”
Walz used another focus of his campaign speeches and called on the Democratic delegates in the audience to work tirelessly until election day.
Walz’s acceptance of the nomination thrilled the group of Democratic delegates from Minnesota, who remained in the United Center stalls for about 30 minutes after the program ended, chanting “USA,” “Harris-Walz,” “Minnesota” and other cheers.
In another ode to his state, musicians John Legend and Sheila E. played “Let’s Go Crazy” by Minnesota native Prince before Walz took the stage.
Oprah Support
Shortly before the odes to Walz began, TV talk show legend Oprah Winfrey, whose show was broadcast from Chicago for decades, made a surprise appearance on the congressional stage.
Winfrey described Harris as a groundbreaking candidate and a profoundly decent person.
Winfrey, who has supported every Democratic presidential candidate since Obama in 2008 but says she remains an independent voter, urged undecided voters to base their vote on the candidate’s character.
“Century and respect are on the ballot in 2024,” she said. “And just plain common sense. Common sense tells you that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz can give us decency and respect.”
She criticized the Republicans under Trump.
“Let us choose loyalty to the Constitution rather than loyalty to any one person,” she said.
She advocated an inclusive vision of politics and rejected Vance’s disparaging description of some Democratic voters as “childless cat ladies.”
“Despite what some would have you believe, we are not that different from our neighbors,” she said. “If a house is on fire, we don’t ask the race or religion of the homeowner. We don’t ask who his partner is or how he voted, no. We just try to do our best to save him. And if the house happens to belong to a childless female cat, we try to get that cat out, too.”
