#DNC, Day 3: Gov. Tim Walz Takes Nomination as VP on Democratic Ticket to the End Zone

With a lead-up that included speeches from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, his home state Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and none other than Sheila E. and John Legend covering Prince, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz had a huge introduction at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, where he wholeheartedly accepted the party’s nomination for vice president on the ticket with Kamala Harris.

That was all before Ben Ingman, who grew up next to the governor, spoke of being coached by Walz with his middle school basketball team, then introduced the high school football team he famously coaches in Minnesota and invited them onto the stage. The wind-up to the potential VP’s stage appearance reached a fever pitch with an ad featuring his wife, First Lady of Minnesota Gwen Walz, who shared her husband’s story, beginning with his roots in Nebraska and then enlisting in the Army National Guard.

The spot aired in the stadium and on home screens before Walz appeared to thunderous applause in Chicago’s United Arena and spoke of his early life, teaching and segue into politics.

“So, there I was, a 40-something high school teacher with little kids, zero political experience, and no money, running in a deep red state,” Walz said. “But you know what? Never underestimate a public school teacher.”

“I represented my neighbors in Congress for 12 years, and I learned an awful lot,” he added when the roar of applause died. “I learned how to work across the aisle on issues like growing the rural economies and taking care of veterans. And I learned how to compromise without compromising my values. Then, I came back to serve as governor, and we got right to work making a difference in our neighbor’s lives.”

Walz, whose booming voice and football coach’s motivational attitude can capture most crowds’ attention, then rattled off some of his achievements in Saint Paul, Minnesota — many of which sound similar to what Harris has so far proposed for her own platform.

“We cut taxes for the middle class,” he said. “We passed paid family and medical leave. We invested in fighting crime and affordable housing. We cut the cost of prescription drugs and help people escape the kind of medical debt that nearly sank my family, and we made sure that every kid in our state gets breakfast and lunch every day.”

Walz got one use of the “weird” descriptor when tying the GOP and former President Donald Trump, along with his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, to Project 2025 — his crowds still eat up that signature word.

“They spend a lot of time pretending they know nothing about this. But look, I coached high school football long enough to know, trust me on this, when somebody takes the time to drop a playbook, they are going to use it,” Walz said. “It is an agenda that serves nobody except the richest and the most extreme among us. And it’s an agenda that does nothing for our neighbors in need. Is it weird? Absolutely. Absolutely. But it is also wrong and it’s dangerous.”

He then used another football metaphor to drive his pitch for Harris-Walz home.

“Team, it is the fourth quarter, we are down a field goal, but we are on offense and we’ve got the ball,” Walz said. “We are 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 is to get into the trenches and do the blocking and tackling. 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.”

Walz exited the stage, closing out night three as he walked off, to Neil Youg’s “Rockin’ in the Free World.”

Before Walz took to the stage, Oprah Winfrey surprised a delighted convention crowd, where she gave a fiery speech in support of Harris, as well as touched on the importance of voting. “I’m calling on all you independents and all you undecideds — you know this is true…values and character matter most of all,” she said. “More than anything… decency and respect are on the ballot in 2024.”

Earlier Wednesday, former President Bill Clinton graced the DNC and showed off his unique charms, emphasizing the legacy of President Joe Biden and his four years in office and comparing him to founding father George Washinton for his decision to give up the massive political power that comes with the U.S. presidency.

“Let’s cut to the chase. I am too old to gild the lily. Two days ago, I turned 78,” Clinton said, his voice hoarse and his frame seemingly thin as ever. He then pointed out that he is still younger than former President Donald Trump, who made age an outsized topic during this election cycle — at least when he was the younger candidate while facing Biden.

After praising the current president, whose name nearly vanished from the convention by the third night, Clinton moved on to Harris, who he said he believes is the “clear choice” being presented to voters.

“Kamala Harris is the only candidate in this race who has the vision, the experience, the temperament, the will, and yes, the sheer joy, to get something done,” he said. “I mean, look, what does her opponent do with his voice? He mostly talks about himself. So, the next time you hear him, don’t count the lies, count the ‘I’s.’”

He went on the attack against Trump for his many “vendettas, his vengeance, his complaints, his conspiracies.”

“He is like the tenors opening up before he goes on stage, like I did, by saying, ‘me, me, me, me, me.’ When Kamala Harris is president, every day will begin with you, you, you, you,” the former president said.

Clinton left the stage to Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop,” which for those who were there in 1992, is synonymous with his first presidential campaign.

Midway through night three, a flow of celebrities finally arrived on stage at Chicago’s United Arena, with both host Mindy Kaling and SNL’s Kenan Thompson bringing some comedic star power to the proceedings. But they were no match for the natural charisma and public speaking abilities of Hakeem Jeffries.

After Kaling joked that she “courageously outed Kamala Harris as Indian” in an Instagram cooking video and recalled the vice president coming to her home to help her make Indian food during her 2020 run, Thompson, beset with some technical difficulties, video-chatted with Americans of all stripes and then explained to them how they would be impacted by Project 2025.

“You ever seen a document that can kill a small animal and end democracy at the same time?” he asked. “Here it is.”

Thompson likened the book, which was for the third night in a row represented by an oversized novelty book held by a speaker, to the “terms and conditions” of a second Trump administration — but one that voters should not skip and click “accept.”

Before former President Bill Clinton’s speech came Jeffries’s biggest moment before the party and the nation. The House minority speaker and heir apparent to the speaker position, should the Democrats win a majority, dazzled them all, bringing a roar to the crowd as he listed all of the people and things Kamala Harris cares about — grandparents, children, your rights and so on.

“President Biden selflessly passed the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris who was ready, willing and able to fight for the people,” Jeffries said Wednesday, adding that the president “will go down as one of the most consequential presidents of all time.”

Harris, he told the crowd, is “a courageous leader, a compassionate leader and a common sense leader who will deliver real results for everyday Americans, while former President Donald Trump is like “an old boyfriend who you broke up with, but he just won’t go away.”

In a moment that may predict a certain pop star’s appearance in Chicago, Jeffries said of Trump, “There is no reason for us to ever get back together.”

Songwriting legend Stevie Wonder also made a surprise appearance in Chicago, where he backed Harris for president and performed his hit song “Higher Ground.” His hit song, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours” was a staple of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and the former president honored the singer with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014.

“This is the moment to remember: when you tell your children where you were and what you did. As we stand between history’s pain and tomorrow’s promises, we must choose courage over complacency. It is time to get up and go vote,” Wonder told the crowd in Chicago.

Wonder’s soulful music is right in line with Harris’ taste and the music she has played on the campaign trail.

The stated theme for the third day of the DNC was set to be “A Fight for Our Freedoms” and the first rapid-fire batch of speakers brought reproductive and LGBTQ rights to the fore. They then tied the GOP and Trump to the ubiquitous Project 2025, with the first set of speakers, primarily women, who stepped up to the podium discussing the topics, which have become driving issues for the party.

On Wednesday, Emily’s List President Jessica Mackler was the first to mention Project 2025, which she quickly tied to the right to abortion care. Under Joe Biden’s administration, but resulting from the opinions of three Supreme Court judges appointed by Trump, the constitutional right to abortion care was struck down in 2022.

“Project 2025 is a blueprint for banning abortion in all 50 states,” Mackler told the crows at the United Center. “It would give extremists like Donald Trump and J.D. Vance the power to monitor your pregnancy and even prosecute doctors for prescribing abortion medication. Make no mistake: the threat of Project 2025 is very real. But so is our ability to stop it.”

The speakers early in the evening came to the stage fast and furious, with some speaking for around two minutes on issues traditionally important to the Democrats before praising Harris and exiting to applause from the crowd: CEO of Boca Latino Maria Teresa Kumar, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (bumped from earlier this week), Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and other minor party stars had their moment on Wednesday.

During her time before the massive crowd, Kelly Robertson, the president of the nonprofit Human Rights Campaign, shifted deeper into LGBTQ rights while enthusiastically speaking out against the GOP’s platform.

“Donald Trump wants to erase us. He would ban our health care, belittle our marriages, and bury our story,” she told the crowd. “But we are not going anywhere. We are not going back. Kamala Harris is a champion for LGBTQ plus freedom. So tonight, we’re fighting for lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer and trans freedom without exception. We’re fighting for equality for all without exception. We’re fighting for joy.”

Later in the evening, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel kept the gay rights theme at the podium, galvanizing the crowd as she discussed Harris’ record as AG of California, which she served from 2011-2017.

“She’s held accountable environmental polluters, sexual abusers… but what really stands out is when she stood up and protected her constituent’s freedoms,” Nessel said. “In 2011, she refused to defend California’s ban on same-sex marriage. She refused to argue that some families should have fewer rights than other families.”

“By the way, Supreme Court, you can pry this wedding finger from my cold dead hand,” she added later to uproar from the crowd.

A potentially conflicting moment came when Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the parents of 23-year-old American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, came to the stage. Hersh is a Hamas hostage whose arm was blown off by a grenade on the day he was taken hostage on Oct. 7 at the Re’im music festival massacre in Southern Israel. With Israel’s deadly campaign in Gaza being the key subject of protests surrounding the DNC, the speech from his parents, two of the most vocal family members calling for the release of hostages, might not have gone over well with the audience. Fortunately, the arena fell silent as they told his story.

“In a competition of pain, there are no winners,” Jon said, referring to the massive death toll in Gaza as compared to that of Israelis. The “suffering of innocent civilians in Gaza must end,” he declared, along with the release of all hostages and a unilateral ceasefire.

Instead of being booed or heckled, the parents received a sustained standing ovation when they walked to the podium. “Bring them home,” the crowd chanted, leading Rachel to double over, sobbing.

Find more of The Hollywood Reporter‘s coverage of the 2024 DNC here.

If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on Google News too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.