Tim Walz capped a whirlwind 15 days that took him from Minnesota governor to vice presidential nominee with an acceptance speech Wednesday that traced his path from Butte, Nebraska, to Chicago’s United Center stage on the penultimate night of the Democratic National Convention.
Walz, in a keynote speech lasting a scant 16 minutes, framed the Nov. 5 general election campaign against Republican nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, as a contest largely “about freedom.”
“When Republicans use the word ‘freedom,’ they mean that the government should be free to invade your doctor’s office, corporations free to pollute your air and water, and banks free to take advantage of customers,” Walz 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, freedom to make your own health care decisions, and, yeah, your kids’ freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall.”
In what had been anticipated as a chance for the second-term governor with a low national profile to flesh out his biography after being chosen for the No. 2 spot on the hastily revamped Democratic ticket, Walz stuck mainly to the highlights.
Vice President Kamala Harris, who is expected Thursday to accept the Democratic presidential nomination, selected Walz earlier this month as her running mate over some better-known contenders, including Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
A former high school social studies teacher and football coach, Walz served for 24 years in the Minnesota National Guard before being elected to Congress from a historically Republican district in 2006, a campaign he said was inspired by his students.
“There I was, a 40-something high school teacher with little kids, no political experience and no money running in a deep-red district,” Walz said. “But you know what? Never underestimate a public school teacher.”
Speaking earlier in the night, former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recalled serving with Walz for 12 years in Congress, praising him for uniting “Democrats, Republicans and independents to turn a red district blue.”
“He showed courage when he came to Congress in voting for the Affordable Care Act, meeting the needs of his constituents despite Republican lies and misrepresentations,” Pelosi said.
Tying into his party’s heightened focus on reproductive health care after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Walz shared the struggles he and his wife, Gwen, had in conceiving before having their daughter, Hope, with the help of fertility treatments.
“I can remember praying each night for a phone call, the pit in your stomach when the phone would ring, and the absolute agony when you heard the treatments hadn’t worked,” he said.
Touching briefly on his accomplishments in Minnesota, Walz said during his time as governor the state has approved paid family leave, cut taxes and made free meals available to all schoolchildren.
“While other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours,” said Walz, referring to efforts to restrict books with content on race and LGBTQ issues in several Republican-led states.
Warning that another Trump term would be “dangerous,” Walz said Harris, a former prosecutor and attorney general, has “taken on the predators and fraudsters, she’s taken down the transnational gangs, and she’s stood up to powerful corporate interests.”
Before Walz took the stage to John Mellencamp’s “Small Town,” Gwen Walz in a video introduced her husband. A fellow teacher in the same high school, she recalled sharing a classroom “with a divider right down the middle.”
“He’s as at home on a farm or a fishing boat, a football field or a factory floor as he is on the floor of Congress,” she said. “Tim’s commitment to service all comes back to the values we grew up with: love your country, help your neighbor, and fight for what’s right.”
Underscoring his common-man credentials, Walz’s neighbor and former student Benjamin Ingman introduced the governor as “the kind of guy you can count on to push you out of a snowbank.”
“I know this,” Ingman said, “because Tim Walz has pushed me out of a snowbank.”
Ingman also surprised the convention audience by bringing out former players Walz coached on Mankato West High School’s football team.
Also helping introduce Walz was U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Minnesota’s senior senator, who likewise highlighted the governor’s homespun persona.
“In Minnesota, we trust a hunter who has stood in a deer stand in 10-degree weather,” Klobuchar said. “In Minnesota, we trust a candidate who has made a viral video on how to change a burnt-out headlight.
“I know we aren’t alone, but in Minnesota, we love a dad in plaid.”
The emphasis on Walz’s down-to-earth demeanor stood in contrast to a star-studded evening at the convention that featured a performance by Stevie Wonder and a surprise appearance by Chicago talk-show legend Oprah Winfrey.
Helping heap praise on Walz was former Democratic President Bill Clinton, who, in speech twice as long as the vice presidential nominee’s, said Harris has “already made her first presidential decision, and she knocked it out of the park” by choosing Walz.
As a tribute to Walz’s state, Grammy Award winners John Legend and Sheila E. took the stage shortly before the keynote to perform Minneapolis native Prince’s 1984 hit “Let’s Go Crazy,” with delegates and other conventioneers in the United Center awash in purple light.
Tribune reporter A.D. Quig contributed.
