As he recounted his career in Congress and as Minnesota governor, Tim Walz cast himself as a fighter for freedom, and decried Republican overreach on issues like IVF care.
Walz recounted working “across the aisle on issues like growing the rural economies and taking care of veterans” in Congress, and said, “Then I came back to serve as governor, and we got right to work making a difference in our neighbors lives,” mentioning his efforts to cut taxes for the middle class, and establishing paid family and medical leave.
“So, 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 personal choices they make, and even if we wouldn’t make those same choices for ourselves, we’ve got a golden rule: mind your own damn business, and that includes IVF and fertility treatments.”
And then Walz took a swipe at JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate.
“I grew up in Butte, Nebraska, a town of 400 people. I had 24 kids in my high school class, and none of them went to Yale,” Walz said. Vance went to Yale.
Tim Walz began his remarks on a note of gratitude, thanking the convention for backing him as Kamala Harris’s running mate.
“It’s the honor of my life to accept your nomination for vice-president of the United States,” Walz said.
Earlier, he had thanked Joe Biden “for four years of strong, historic leadership” and Harris “for putting your trust in me and for inviting me to be part of this incredible campaign”.
Tim Walz has just walked on stage.
He did a little bow to stage right as he came out, and waved to the crowd.
The convention big screen is now playing a video where Gwen Walz recounts her husband’s career.
She talks about his love for hunting and support of gun control, as well as causes important to Democrats, such as advising his high school’s gay-straight alliance.
Signs reading “Coach Walz” have been handed out to convention-goers in the United Center.
Ben Ingman, a former student of Walz, came on stage next to talk about his former teacher.
“Tim Walz is the kind of guy you can count on to push you out of a snow bank. I know this because Tim Walz has pushed me out of a snow bank,” he said.
Ingman was also joined on stage by members of the Mankato West high school football team, which Walz once coached.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has called on the Democratic national convention to “center the humanity of the 40,000 Palestinians killed under Israeli bombardment”.
The uncommitted movement has been demanding that the convention bring a Palestinian American onto the main stage, and earlier this evening staged a sit-in outside the convention center. Ocasio-Cortez uplifted calls for a ceasefire in her convention remarks earlier in the week. Ocasio-Cortez’s message to the convention came the same night that parents of a Hamas hostage spoke on the main stage.
Walz, who is not onstage quite yet, was introduced by Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar, who said:
Who better to take on the price of gas than a guy who could pull over to help change your tire? Who better to serve our nation than a guy who has served in uniform? Who better to find common ground than a guy with midwestern common sense?
A former football coach knows how to level the playing field and a former public school teacher knows how to school the likes of JD Vance.
Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s pick for running mate, is about to speak to the Democratic national convention.
This will be the Minnesota governor’s most high-profile speech since Harris made him her pick for vice-president.
The contrast Democrats are trying to draw with Republicans is one where they’re the party of optimism, and the GOP of “darkness”.
“Choosing a guy like JD Vance to be America’s next vice-president sends a message, and the message is that they are doubling down on negativity and grievance, committing to a concept of campaigning best summed up in one word: darkness,” Buttigieg said.
“Darkness is what they are selling. The thing is, I just don’t believe that America, today, is in the market for darkness.”
Up next was Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary under Joe Biden who is widely seen as having presidential ambitions.
“Here is a sentence I never thought I’d hear myself saying: I’m Pete Buttigieg, and you might recognize me from Fox News,” he began, in a reference to his habit of making appearances on the conservative news network.
He then tore into Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance, who has been something of a secondary target for Democrats this evening:
Don’t even get me started on his new running mate. At least Mike Pence was polite. JD Vance is one of those guys who thinks if you don’t live the life that he has in mind for you, then you don’t count. Someone who said that if you don’t have kids, you have ‘no physical commitment to the future of this country’. You know, senator, when I deployed to Afghanistan, I didn’t have kids. Then, many of the men and women who tied the wire with me didn’t have kids either, but let me tell you, our commitment to the future of this country was pretty damn physical.
Wes Moore, the Maryland governor who is another rising star in the party, recounted how he was able to get the economically important port of Baltimore reopened ahead of schedule, after it was blocked when the Francis Scott Key bridge was destroyed by a cargo ship.
“I joined the army when I was 17. In fact, I was too young to sign the paperwork. I had to ask my mom to sign the paperwork for me, because I don’t have bone spurs,” Moore said, referring to accusations from Democrats that Donald Trump faked a disability to avoid the Vietnam war.
Moore continued:
I led soldiers in combat in Afghanistan, and my training, my training, taught me that you never learn anything about anybody when times are easy. You learn everything you need to know about somebody, when times are hard, and when the temperature gets turned up. And, America, I saw that Kamala Harris is the right one to lead in this moment, firsthand.
And united with the Almighty God’s grace, we brought closure to the families of the six victims, and while many said it could take 11 months to reopen the Port of Baltimore, we got it done in 11 weeks.
Fun fact about Oprah Winfrey: she’s a registered independent, as she just told the Democratic convention, and is calling on like-minded people to vote for Kamala Harris.
“Let me tell you this, this election isn’t about us and them, it’s about you and me and what we want our futures to look like. There are choices to be made when we cast our ballot. Now, there’s a certain candidate that says, if we just go to the polls this one time, then we’ll never have to do it again. Well, you know what, you’re looking at a registered independent who’s proud to vote again and again and again, because I’m an American, and that’s what Americans do,” she said.
“Since I was eligible to vote, I’ve always voted my values, and that is what is needed in this election, now more than ever. So, I’m calling on all you independents and all you undecideds – you know this is true. You know I’m telling you the truth that values and character matter most of all, in leadership, in life, and more than anything, you know this is true, that decency and respect are on the ballot, and just plain common sense.”
Winfrey continued her message of inclusion, with a swipe at JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate.
“Despite what some would have you think, we are not so different from our neighbors. 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,” she said. “And if the place happens to belong to a childless cat lady, well, we try to get that cat out, too.”
That is a reference to a remark from Vance that he’s been trying to walk back ever since Trump selected him as his vice-presidential pick last month: