Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz reacts after accepting the vice presidential nomination during the third day of the Democratic National Convention at the United Center on Aug. 21, 2024 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
CHICAGO — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president Wednesday, showcasing his appeal on the third night of the Democratic National Convention as a candidate who can fuse a middle-class image to a fairly progressive record and effectively attack the Republican alternative.
A native of a small town in Nebraska, Walz is a former high school teacher, coach and Army National Guardsman whom presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris chose just a little more than two weeks ago as her running mate.
In his speech to delegates packed into the United Center, an introduction to millions of Americans, Walz made the case that Democrats’ policies were the ones more consistent with heartland values than those of Republicans, led by the presidential ticket of former President Donald Trump and Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.
“This is a big part about what this election is about: freedom,” he said.
Republicans invoke freedom to pass restrictions on reproductive rights, allow corporations to pollute and permit banks to take advantage of customers, he said.
“But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people that you love, to make your own health care decisions, your kids to go to school without worrying about being shot dead,” he said.
A night after former President Barack Obama attested to Walz’s authentic style by lightly mocking his worn flannel shirts, other speakers sought to brandish Walz’s image as a stereotypically sensible Upper Midwesterner.
Minnesota’s senior Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Benjamin Ingman, a former student and next-door neighbor of Walz’s, introduced the vice-presidential candidate.
“Tim Walz is the kind of the guy you can count on to push you out of a snowbank,” Ingman said, referring to the neighborly chore of freeing a vehicle stuck after a heavy snow. “I know this because Tim Walz pushed me out of a snowbank.”
While Ingman spoke, former members of Walz-coached football teams took the stage, wearing red-and-white Mankato West High School football jerseys.
Klobuchar praised Walz’s progressive policy wins as governor — signing laws to guarantee paid leave, provide school meals and cut taxes for families.
She also made note of Walz’s folksy appeal and humble background that is 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 school the likes of J.D. Vance.”
Walz argued that Democrats sought to expand freedom, a central theme of the Harris campaign, while Republicans worked to limit rights.
He mentioned fertility treatments, which he and his wife, Gwen, used to conceive their two children. After the U.S. Supreme Court repealed the nationwide right to an abortion, some Republicans have 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 with anti-abortion advocates.
Still, Walz said the pain of infertility was “hell,” and in an emotional moment, he acknowledged Gwen and children Hope and Gus in the crowd, telling them they were his “entire world.”
The crowd cheered as the Walz family’s emotion-filled faces appeared on the screens in the United Center.
Walz promoted his record as governor, including the free school meals program and an expansion of reproductive rights, and framed them as in line with traditional 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 the choices they make. Even if we wouldn’t make those same choices for ourselves, we’ve got a golden rule: Mind your own damn business.”
Walz blasted the Republican agenda, including the 900-plus page proposal published by the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation.
Republicans, including the Trump campaign, have sought to distance themselves from the document, which includes several provisions that Democrats have been eager to criticize.
Walz said it showed Republicans would gut Social Security and Medicare, repeal the popular health care law known as Obamacare and restrict abortion nationwide.
He characterized Republicans as out of touch, extreme and — and he has for weeks — weird.
“It’s an agenda that served nobody except the richest and the most extreme amongst us, and it’s an agenda that does nothing for our neighbors in need,” he said. “Is it weird? Absolutely.”
Walz sought to position Democrats as the party of common sense, including on guns.
As a veteran and hunter, Walz was familiar with guns and supportive of gun rights. But he suggested there must be limits that many Republicans do not accept.
“I believe in the Second Amendment,” he said. “But I also believe our first responsibility is to keep our kids safe.”
As president, he said, Harris would lower middle-class taxes, rein in drug costs and “stand up and fight for your freedom to live the life that you want to lead.”
Using another mainstay of his campaign speeches, Walz urged the Democratic delegates in the audience to work tirelessly until Election Day.
Walz’s acceptance pumped up the group of Democratic delegates from Minnesota, who stayed for roughly 30 minutes after the program ended on the United Center floor chanting “U-S-A,” “Harris-Walz,” “Minnesota” and other cheers.
In another ode to his state, musicians John Legend and Sheila E. performed “Let’s Go Crazy” by Minnesota native Prince before Walz took the stage.
Just 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 convention stage.
Winfrey made the case for Harris as a barrier-breaking candidate and a deeply decent person.
Winfrey, who has backed every Democratic presidential candidate since Obama in 2008 but said she remains an independent voter, urged undecided voters to base their votes on the candidates’ character.
“Decency 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 Republicans under Trump.
“Let us choose loyalty to the Constitution instead of loyalty to a single person,” she said
She appealed for an inclusive vision of politics, rejecting Vance’s dismissive description of some Democratic voters as “childless cat ladies.”
“Despite what some would have you think, we are not so different from our neighbors,” she said. “When a house is on fire, we don’t ask about the homeowner’s race or religion. We don’t wonder who their partner is or how they voted, no. We just try to do the best we can to save them. And if the place happens to belong to a childless cat lady, well, we try to get that cat out too.”
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