COACH WALZ DELIVERS PEP TALK TO DNC, ACCEPTS VP NOMINATION

View video of full acceptance speech by Tim Walz

By Miriam Raftery

August 22, 2024 (Chicago, IL) – Cheered on by Democratic National convention delegates and many of his former students, Minnesota GovernorTim Walsh accepted the vice presidential nomination as Kamala Harris’ running mate last night. “I haven’t given a lot of big speeches like this,but I have given a lot of pep talks,” the former high school football coach, teacher, former Congressman and military veteran told the crowd.

He likened the 76-days until Election Day to a football game in the fourth quarter, adding, “We’re on offense and we’ve got the ball...and boy, do we have the right team.” He called Harris tough, experience and ready to “build a country where workers come first, healthcare and housing are human rights, and the government stays the hell out of of your bedroom.”

Walz said it was the players he once coached and his students who first inspired him to run for Congress.  “They saw in me what I had hoped to instill in them: a commitment to the common good, an understanding that we’re all in this together, and the belief that a single person can make a real difference for their neighbors.”

He recalled growing up in Butte, Nebraska, a town of just 400 residents where people cared for each other, even if their neighbors had different belief. “Everybody belongs, and everybody has a responsibility to contribute,” said Walz, who enlisted in the National Guard at age 17 and served for 24 years. 

After his father, a Korean War veteran, died of lung cancer, Walz said Social Security benefits helped his family recover from a mountain of medical debts. He also voiced thanks for the G. I. bill that enabled him to go to college, where he fell in love with teaching and soon married a teacher.

“Never underestimate a public school teacher,” said Walz, who won his election to Congress in a conservative district despite having “zero political experience and no money,” as well as two young children.  He served in Congress for 12 years, where he said he learned “how to work across the aisle on issues like growing the rural economies and taking care of veterans” without compromising his values.

Later as Governor, he voiced pride in helping others by cutting taxes for the middle class, passing paid family and medical leave, investing in affordable housing and fighting crime, and cutting costs of prescription drugs to help people avoid medical debt.  “And we made sure that every kid in our state gets breakfast and lunch every day,” he added. “So while other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours.”

His administration also protected reproductive freedom, “because in Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make. And even if we wouldn’t make those same choices for ourselves, we’ve got a golden rule: mind your own damn business,” he said. “And that includes I.V.F. and fertility treatments, and this is personal for Gwen and I.”

He shared the agony he and wife shared through years of trying to conceive a child though fertility treatments that resulted in birth of their daughter, Hope.  “I’m letting you in on how we started a family because this is a big part about what this election is about—freedom,” he told the audience. “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.”

By contrast, he said when Democrats talk of 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,” as well as freedom for children to go to school without fear of being gunned down.  Walsh, a hunter and gun owner, says he believes in the Second Amendment but as a dad, “I also believe our first responsibility is to keep our kids safe.”

He then took aim at Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Trump’s running mate,  J.D. Vance, whom he said “just don’t understand what it takes to be a good neighbor.”

He targeted Project 2025, a nearly 1,000 page playbook for a second Trump administration written by dozens of conservatives including many Trump administration officials and Trump campaign leaders. A book by the project’s lead author has a forward written by J.D. Vance.

“They spend a lot of time pretending they know nothing about this,”Walz said of Trump’s recent attempts to distance himself from Project 2025 amid rising public criticisms. “But look, I coached high school football long enough to know, and trust me on this: When someone takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re going to use it.”

He then predicted that if Trump and Vance win the election,  they’ll start “jacking up costs on the middle class” as well as repeal the Affordable Care Act, which Trump has promised to do. “They’ll gut Social Security and Medicare. And they will ban abortion across the country,” he added.  Trump has said he would leave abortion legislation up to the states, many of which have already made the procedure illegal,  but he has not said whether he would sign a total nationwide ban if Congress were to present him with one, nor has he pledged not to take administration actions to further restrict access to abortion, such as banning access to abortion pills.

He called the Trump/Project 2025 agenda “wrong” and “dangerous.”

He also faulted Trump’s divisive and demeaning treatment of others.  Walz said the teenage student body presidents at his high school “could teach Donald Trump a hell of a lot about what a leader is. Leaders don’t spend all day insulting people and blaming others. Leaders do the work.”

He pledged that he and Harris will move our nation forward,not backward.

He praised Harris’ work as a prosecutor, district attorney, state attorney general, U.S. Senator and vice president for fighting on the side of the people. “She’s taken on the predators and fraudsters. She’s taken on the transnational gangs. And she’s stood up to powerful corporate interests.”  He also praised her for tackling those  challenges “with passion and with joy.”

What will Harris do as President?  Walz said it's important for people to know. He urged the crowd members to send this to their undecided relatives: “If you’re a middle-class family, or trying to get into the middle class, Kamala Harris is going to cut your taxes. If you’re getting squeezed by prescription drug prices, Kamala Harris is going to take on Big Pharma. If you’re hoping to buy a home, Kamala Harris is going to stand up and fight to make it more affordable,”

 he said, but did not offer specifics. “And no matter who you are, Kamala Harris is going to stand up and fight for your freedom to live the life that you want to lead, because that’s what we want for ourselves, and that’s what we want for our neighbors.”

He ended by exhorting the crowd to “get in the trenches and do the blocking and tackling” to help Harris and Walz win “one inch at a time, one yard at a time, one phone call at a time, one door knock at a time, one $5 donation at a time” to help make America a place “where no child is left hungry, where no community is left behind, where nobody gets told they don’t belong. That’s how we’re going to fight,”  he concluded. “And as the next president of the United States always says, when we fight...”

The crowd chanted in response, three times, “We win!”