Late into Wednesday evening following a parade of celebrities including Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and even John Legend singing a Prince tribute, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz addressed a Chicago arena filled to the brim with party delegates, staff, supporters and media for a little more than 16 minutes.
In a keynote address on the third night of the Democratic National Convention that began at about 10:30 p.m. central time, Minnesota’s two-term governor and the Democratic vice-presidential nominee recited his best hits, chronicling his bona fides that he has perfected from numerous speeches he’s made on television and along the campaign trail defending President Joe Biden and attacking former President Donald Trump.
Walz mentioned Vice President Kamala Harris at the outset of his speech, thanking her for “putting your trust in me and inviting me to enjoy an incredible campaign.” He mentioned Harris again during the last three minutes of his address. In between he told those with willing ears of his exploits as a football coach, Army National Guard member, teacher, hunter, congressman, small town boy and governor.
Walz didn’t mention his many trips to China or his 1995 DUI arrest that was followed by his resignation from coaching at Alliance High School in Nebraska, or his handling of the week-long riots in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd in May 2020. But the boastful mantras he’s gleaned from his 2022 gubernatorial reelection campaign and as a Democratic surrogate the last 18 months were plentiful:
“…Because in Minnesota, we’ve got a golden rule, mind your own damn business.”
“Thank you for bringing the joy to this fight.”
“Look, I know guns, I am a veteran, I’m a hunter and I was a better shot than most Republicans in Congress and I’ve got the trophies to prove it.”
“We ran a 44 defense and played through the whistle on every single play and we even won a state championship.”
“But you know, never underestimate a public school teacher.”
“When we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a life for yourself and the people that you love. Freedom to make your own healthcare decisions and, yeah, your kid’s freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall.”
“While other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours.”
Those who are familiar with Walz’s speeches have heard them all before.
But what Walz didn’t spend much time addressing with those seated in the United Center late into Wednesday evening, or those who might still have been watching at home, was his running mate, presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Walz did attack Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance, calling them “dangerous” and “weird” and claiming, if elected, the Republican ticket would invoke a “Project 2025” plan developed by the Heritage Foundation, which both Trump and Vance have distanced themselves from and said they haven’t had any part in developing.
“If these guys get back in the White House,” Walz promised the audience, who booed at the mention of Trump and Vance, “they will start jacking up the costs on the middle class; they will ban abortion across this country with or without Congress. It’s an agenda that nobody asked for and it’s an agenda that serves nobody except the richest and most extreme among us. Is it weird? Absolutely, but it’s also wrong and it’s dangerous.”
‘It’s the fourth quarter’
Walz ended his speech leaning on his coaching experience, which included a handful of years as a ninth-grade football coach in Alliance, Neb., and then four years as an assistant coach at Mankato West High School. Walz hasn’t helped coach a football team for 22 years. But the former 12-year member of the U.S. House of Representatives closed his speech with an effort to rally the audience by leaning into his time as an assistant football coach.
“It’s the fourth quarter and we are down a field goal,” Walz said as his voice and mannerisms rose to a crescendo of emotion. “But we are on offense and we’ve got the ball, we’re driving down the field, and boy, do we have the right team. Kamala Harris is tough; Kamala Harris is experienced and Kamala Harris is ready.
“Our job, our job, our job, our job for everyone watching,” Walz said, as he was trying to gain the audience’s attention for his final words, “is to get in the trenches and do the blocking and tackling; one inch at a time, one yard at a time, one door knock at a time, one five-dollar donation at a time … We got 76 days; that’s nothing! There’ll be time to sleep when we’re dead!”
Vance responds
Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance was afforded a rapid response opportunity on Fox News just minutes after Walz completed his speech.
When asked by a news panel whether he believed Walz demonstrated the ability to step in and serve as vice president, Vance intimated he was less than impressed.
“What I heard was a guy who is trying to defend Kamala Harris,” Vance said. “I kept on wanting him to say, ‘This is what she’s already done.’”
“When you are defending the sitting vice president of the United States, ‘Day One’ is not what she’ll do six months from now. ‘Day One’ of her administration was 1,300 days ago; and she hasn’t done anything. Her policies are what have caused so many of these problems for Americans.
“They need to be able to say we did this thing and it made your life better,” Vance continued. “And because they can’t say that, it’s a lot of rhetoric and a lot of generalized promises about the future. But that’s not gonna help Americans with the price of groceries and housing. In fact, Kamala Harris’s policies have done the exact opposite.”
Hank Long
Hank Long is a journalism and communications professional whose writing career includes coverage of the Minnesota legislature, city and county governments and the commercial real estate industry. Hank received his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, where he studied journalism, and his law degree at the University of St. Thomas. The Minnesota native lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and four children. His dream is to be around when the Vikings win the Super Bowl.
