- Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said on the evening of the Democratic Party convention that he and Vice President Kamala Harris would “draw a line under Donald Trump.”
- Walz accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president.
- He and Harris will face Republicans Trump and Senator JD Vance in the November White House election.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said Wednesday night at the Democratic Party convention that he and Vice President Kamala Harris will ‘turn the page to Donald Trump.”
“We have something better to offer the American people,” Walz said as he accepted the Democratic nomination as Harris’ running mate in Chicago.
In a brisk, energetic speech, Walz recounted his childhood in the “small town of Butte, Nebraska,” and his career as a public school teacher, football coach, member of the National Guard, and finally as a member of Congress.
“Never underestimate a public school teacher,” Walz said.
He also spoke about the difficulties he and his wife faced in having children.
“This is personal for Gwen and me. Let me just say this: Even if you’ve never experienced the hell of infertility, I guarantee you know someone who has,” Walz said. “I remember praying every night for a call with good news, the sinking feeling in my stomach when the phone rang, and the agony when we heard the treatments hadn’t worked. It took Gwen and me years to get through this.”
Walz said he talks about this history at length “because that’s what a big part of this election is about – freedom.”
“When Republicans use that word, they mean that the government has unfettered access to doctors’ offices,” he said. “Corporations have unfettered access to pollute the air and water. Banks have unfettered access to exploit their customers.”
“But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean your freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people you love. The freedom to make your own decisions about your health care. And, yes, the freedom of your children to go to school without fear of being shot in the hallway.”
Like many other speakers at the DNC, Walz mentioned Project 2025, a blueprint for a second Trump administration put forward by the Heritage Foundation that contains proposals so controversial that Trump claimed he had nothing to do with them.
“Take Donald Trump and JD Vance,” Walz said, referring to the Ohio senator who is Trump’s Republican running mate.
“Their Project 2025 is going to make it much, much harder for people who are just trying to live their lives,” Walz said. “They’ve spent a lot of time pretending they don’t know anything about it. But look, I’ve coached high school football long enough, I promise you one thing: If somebody takes the time to create a playbook, they intend to use it.”
Walz called Project 2025 “an agenda that serves no one but the richest people and most extreme voices in our country.”
According to NBC News, Walz’s speech, which lasted just 15 minutes, was the shortest acceptance speech by a vice presidential candidate since at least 1984.
