In addition to introducing himself to a country in which he is not particularly well known outside his home state Minnesota, a goal of Tim Walz’s speech was to energize the Democratic base before the 5 November election.
To do that, he again relied on football metaphors.
“Our job for everyone watching is to get in the trenches and do the blocking and tackling, one inch at a time, one yard at a time, one phone call at a time, one door knock at a time,” Walz said. “We got 76 days. That’s nothing, there’ll be time to sleep when you’re dead. We’re gonna leave it [all] on the field.”
He wrapped up his speech by saying: “As the next president of the United States always says, when we fight,” and the crowd went, “we win!”
This blog is closing now, thanks for following along. If you’re here for Oprah, our story is at the link below:
More on Pelosi’s appearances on Wednesday:
At an event before the DNC, Pelosi was reluctant to divulge details of her conversation with Biden just over a month ago, during the deeply agonizing period before he decided to abandon his re-election bid and endorse Harris.
Speaking at the University Club of Chicago, in a room paneled with stained glass, Pelosi insisted that the monumental decision was Biden’s alone to make. But pressed by Democratic strategist David Axelrod, she conceded that she believed it “essential” Democrats deny Donald Trump a second term. The cost was denying Biden one, too.
“I wanted very much to protect his legacy,” she said. But her highest priority was to win the election – and not just the White House, but the House and the Senate. “A great sacrifice was made here,” she said.
Pelosi appeared uncomfortable with the suggestion that she played the central role in pushing Biden to end his re-election campaign, a decision that transformed the presidential race. Harris has unified the party behind her and her running mate, Tim Walz, a former Minnesota congressman who Pelosi had also advocated for.
“You have to make the decision to win, and you have to make every decision in favor of winning,” she said.
Biden denied that any one person had pushed him out of the race. Speaking to reporters on Monday, after delivering what amounted to a farewell speech at the Democratic convention, he said: “No one influenced my decision. No one knew it was coming.”
Pelosi and Biden, devout Catholics who have known each other for decades, have not spoken since he ended his campaign. The rupture has weighed on Pelosi, she said. “I’ve cried over this. I’m sad about this,” she said.
During his remarks in Chicago, Biden said: “All this talk about how I’m angry at all those people who said I should step down, it’s not true.”
Elected officials have thrown support at the ceasefire delegates doing a sit-in at the United Center in protest over the refusal of the party to allow a Palestinian American to speak on stage.
Congresswoman Summer Lee stopped by to say she supported the activism. And congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called in on FaceTime to say their request was reasonable.
The group said it intends to remain seated there until the DNC grants its request.
Here is our full write up of Tim Walz’s speech, by my colleague Rachel Leingang:
Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg gave emotional remarks on Wednesday night about their son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who is held hostage by Hamas. Polin praised the White House and said they had met with Harris and Biden: “They’re both working tirelessly for a hostage and ceasefire deal that will bring our precious children, mothers, fathers, spouses, grandparents and grandchildren home, and will stop the despair in Gaza.”
Members of the uncommitted movement, who have been advocating for a ceasefire and arms embargo on Israel, said they welcomed the speech, but continued to advocate that a Palestinian leader get an opportunity to address the crowd. Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a doctor who has treated patients in Gaza, spoke on a Democratic convention panel centered on Palestinian human rights, but there hasn’t been a Palestinian American on the main stage. Gaza solidarity protesters staged a sit-in outside the convention, and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called on the convention to “center the humanity of the 40,000 Palestinians killed under Israeli bombardment”, posting: “To deny that story is to participate in the dehumanization of Palestinians. The @DNC must change course and affirm our shared humanity.”
Bill Clinton, the 42nd president, addressed his 12th Democratic convention, reading off written notes, not the teleprompter, suggesting the speech was edited last-minute. He warned Democrats against complacency: “We’ve seen more than one election slip away from us when we thought it couldn’t happen, when people got distracted by phoney issues. This is a brutal business.” He mocked Trump for his narcissism and obsession with crowd sizes, following Barack Obama’s widely cited joke on Tuesday: “[Trump] mostly talks about himself … his vendettas, vengeance, his complaints, his conspiracies.”
Clinton preached a message of unity, echoing Obama’s comments, encouraging supporters not to demean or disrespect neighbors they disagree with. He praised Joe Biden for “voluntarily” giving up power and celebrated the hope Harris has injected into the race: “If you vote for this team … you will be proud of it for the rest of your life.”
Kamala Harris’s running mate gave his keynote pitch to supporters at the end of the third night of the convention, talking about his military service, coaching and teaching days, and his family’s fertility journey. He leaned into his humble roots and deployed repeated football metaphors: “I haven’t given a lot of big speeches like this, but I have given a lot of pep talks … It’s the fourth quarter. We’re down a field goal, but we’re on offense and we’ve got the ball. We’re driving down the field, and boy do we have the right team.”
He called on his supporters to step up with urgency: “We got 76 days. That’s nothing. There’ll be time to sleep when you’re dead. We’re going to leave it on the field. That’s how we’ll keep moving forward. That’s how we’ll turn the page on Donald Trump. That’s how we’ll build a country where workers come first, healthcare and housing are human rights, and the government stays the hell out of your bedroom. That’s how we make America a place where no child is left hungry, where no community is left behind, where nobody gets told they don’t belong.”
Democrats rose to their feet when Nancy Pelosi walked on stage at the United Center in Chicago for the Democratic national convention. They applauded, and then applauded louder. Pelosi waved before quieting the room.
The former House speaker began by expressing her gratitude to Joe Biden, calling his term “one of the most successful presidencies of modern times”. even though she had pushed subtly but forcefully for the president to step aside.
“Thank you, Joe,” she said, before turning to Kamala Harris, a fellow Californian who Pelosi said was “ready to take us to new heights”.
Pelosi may have retired from her speakership, but the convention has proven – if proof were needed – that the veteran congresswoman remains one of the most important power brokers in the party who can make – or break – a US president.
Here is Oprah on her decision to make a speech at the DNC tonight:
As I walked out of United Center among delegates still cheering after Gov Tim Walz’s speech, I saw the sit-in led by Uncommitted delegates had grown in the past couple hours.
Some in the movement held banners saying “not another bomb” and “arms embargo now” facing the arena exits.
About a dozen people are sitting on the pavement beside the arena, talking about their experiences as Palestinian Americans and what they want from the DNC – a spot for a speaker on the main stage.
Some elected officials have spoken in support of their demand, tweeting that after the family of Israeli hostages got time to share their story, so too should a Palestinian.
Trump has posted his assessment of Wednesday night at the DNC on Truth Social, calling Josh Shapiro’s speech “really bad and poorly delivered”. Trump also claimed that he is the “best friend that Israel, and the Jewish people, ever had” and that he has “done more for Israel than any person, and it’s not even close”.
He claimed, erroneously, that Harris “hates Israel”.
When Walz was speaking, his son Gus, sitting in the audience was visibly moved. Here is that moment:
In her Wednesday night appearance, Winfrey also spoke about Tessie Prevost Williams, who, at age six, was part of the first two desegregated classrooms in New Orleans. Williams died in July this year.
The New Orleans Four – as Williams and another three students became known – paved the way for a “girl, nine years later, to become part of the second integrated class” at her school in California, Winfrey said in reference to Harris, who was part of a bussing programme in Berkley.
“Soon, and very soon, we’re going to be teaching our daughters and sons about how this child of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, two idealistic, energetic immigrants … grew up to become the 47th president of the United States,” Winfrey told the crowd.
Winfrey endorsed Barack Obama in 2008, Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Joe Biden in 2020, but Wednesday was her first appearance at a Democratic convention. Her appearance was kept secret and, according to her friend Gayle King, when Winfrey entered the convention centre for a rehearsal she wore a hat, sunglasses and face mask to hide her identity.
In 2012, researchers at Northwestern University and the University of Maryland tried to establish the correlation, if any, between celebrity endorsements and votes.
They used Winfrey’s endorsement of Barack Obama ahead of the 2008 Democrat primary to examine whether it had any effect on the polls.
The researchers concluded that Winfrey’s endorsement was worth about a million votes for Obama, who beat his main primary challenger, Hillary Clinton, by about 270,000 votes in the states used in the sample.