Gov. Tim Walz steps onto national stage as VP nominee in Chicago

CHICAGO – Gov. Tim Walz gave the biggest speech of his political career Wednesday in support of his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris, quickly summarizing his accomplishments as governor before shifting into Coach Walz pep talk, asking Democrats at the national convention to choose joy over division.

“Some folks just don’t understand what it takes to be a good neighbor,” Walz said, pointing to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint for a second term of former President Donald Trump that Walz said would “jack up the cost on the middle class,” lead to the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, gut Social Security and Medicare and impose a national abortion ban.

“Here’s the thing: It’s an agenda that nobody asked for,” Walz said. “Is it weird? Absolutely. But it’s also wrong, and it’s dangerous.”

Toward the end of his speech, he got the packed United Center to join him in the rallying cry, “We’re not going back.”

“We’ve got something better to offer the American people,” Walz said. “It starts with our candidate Kamala Harris.”

He told Democrats to clip the next part of his speech for their undecided friends and relatives, telling them Harris will cut taxes for the middle class, take on the pharmaceutical industry and make homeownership more affordable.

“No matter who you are, Kamala Harris is gonna stand up to fight for your freedom to live the life you want to lead,” he said.

It was the biggest stage of the second-term governor’s political career, lasting just over 15 minutes with his extended family watching from the front row.

In the past three weeks, Walz has begun his new role as chief cheerleader and would-be second-in-command to Harris.

“Donald Trump doesn’t see the world the way we see it,” Walz said Tuesday at a joint rally with Harris in Milwaukee. “This guy weakens our country, mocks our laws, sows chaos and division amongst all of us.”

Before Walz took the stage in Chicago, Trump’s campaign issued a written statement, saying “Freakish Walz and Comrade Kamala” are “perfect together, wrong for America.” The statement said Walz is a “radical left lunatic whose dangerous ideology has ravaged everything it has ever touched.”

Walz talked about how Minnesota approved free meals for school children while other states banned books. He spoke of gun safety measures aimed at keeping students from being shot in schools.

He touched on the values he learned growing up in small-town Nebraska. He skipped over the challenges during his tenure: COVID-19 era restrictions, Feeding Our Future fraud or his handling of the civil unrest in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in police custody.

To Minnesotans, the stories were familiar, curated highlights and challenges of his six-year tenure as governor, his 12 years in Congress representing the First District in southern Minnesota, his enlistment at age 17 in the Army National Guard and his childhood in Nebraska.

Former President Bill Clinton spoke before Walz, saying Harris “knocked it out of the park” when she chose Walz as her running mate. Clinton used an expression from his native Arkansas, saying “you do not have to be all broke out with brilliance” to appreciate Walz, just “follow his record as a teacher, a coach.”

Clinton talked about Walz’s support for restrictions on assault weapons. “By all accounts, he was a crack shot who had the courage among his constituents to say we do not need these assault weapons available to people who can kill kids in school,” Clinton said.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also praised Walz’s work in getting elected to Congress in a rural district. “He united Democrats, independents and Republicans to turn a red district blue,” she said.

Because Walz was on the highest of political stages, the campaign showed glossy, evocative videos. The first featured five former students from Mankato West High School discussing how his tutelage changed their lives. Before he went to Congress in 2007, Walz taught social studies, helped build sets for student plays and was the faculty adviser for the Gay-Straight Alliance.

Students in the video included Kent Wawrzynaik from Mankato West’s Class of 1998, Sarah Manes from 1999, Jacob Reitan from 2000, Blake Frink and Josh Jagdfeld from 2001 and Nate Hood from 2002.

A second video showcased the governor’s 24 years of military service and his dedication to veterans, which the GOP has used as an attack point to claim he left his command to run for Congress rather than go into combat in Iraq. Sgt. Al Bonnifield, who served with Walz, and Cpl. Mike McLaughlin, an Iraq veteran, were featured.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison took the stage briefly and vouched for Walz, saying he’s worked side by side with him for 18 years. The two served in Congress together for 12 years, and have both held statewide office for the past six.

Ellison delivered a message to the party’s uncommitted who want Harris and Walz to call for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and an arms embargo on Israel. Harris and Walz will listen, he said.

“When we say we need a cease-fire, and an end to the loss of innocent lives in Gaza, and to bring hostages home, they’re listening to us — and they agree with us,” he said.

The attorney general called Republicans con artists who are “trafficking in the defective goods of division, exclusion and fear,” he said, adding that the country isn’t going back. To anyone who isn’t sure on Harris and Walz, Ellison said, “They believe everybody counts and everybody matters.”

The state director of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity responded to Walz’s speech by criticizing his record as governor.

“Walz has no business talking about ‘growing the rural economy’ when as governor, he evaporated an $18 billion surplus in our state,” Jake Coleman said in a statement. “If he truly cared about being a ‘good neighbor,’ he wouldn’t have signed off on the high taxes and soft-on-crime policies that have hurt families and businesses over the last five years.”

Nominating the governor was U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Ben Ingman, a former student and Mankato neighbor of Walz and First Lady Gwen Walz. Ingman also brought out former Mankato West football players and former head coach Rick Sutton in their jerseys to the school fight song.

The governor stepped out on the convention’s penultimate night right after John Legend and Sheila E. performed Prince’s song, “Let’s Go Crazy.”