Tim Walz rallies Democrats in biggest speech of his life, saying: ‘we’re gonna leave it on the field’ – live | Democratic national convention 2024

In addition to introducing himself to a country in which he is not particularly well known outside his home state Minnesota, a goal of Tim Walz’s speech was to energize the Democratic base before the 5 November election.

To do that, he again relied on football metaphors.

“Our job for everyone watching is to get in 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,” Walz said. “We got 76 days. That’s nothing, there’ll be time to sleep when you’re dead. We’re gonna leave it on the field.”

He wrapped up his speech by saying: “As the next president of the United States always says, when we fight,” and the crowd went, “we win!”

Tim Walz kept the attacks on Donald Trump and JD Vance going, bringing up Project 2025, the rightwing blueprint to remake the US government that Democrats have made a centerpiece of their counterattack to the GOP.

Returning to the theme of freedom – which is the focus of the night’s convention programming – Walz said: “That’s what this is all about, the responsibility we have to our kids, to each other and to the future that we’re building together, in which everyone is free to build the kind of life they want. But not everyone has that same sense of responsibility. Some folks just don’t understand what it takes to be a good neighbor. Take Donald Trump and JD Vance.”

“Their Project 2025 will make things much, much harder for people who are just trying to live their lives. They spent a lot of time pretending they know nothing about this. But look, I coached high school football long enough to know and trust me on this. When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re going to use it,” he said.

This is a well-received speech, with lots of applause in the room.

As he recounted his career in Congress and as Minnesota governor, Tim Walz cast himself as a fighter for freedom, and decried Republican overreach on issues such as IVF care.

Walz recounted working “across the aisle on issues like growing the rural economies and taking care of veterans” in Congress, and said: “Then I came back to serve as governor, and we got right to work making a difference in our neighbors’ lives,” mentioning his efforts to cut taxes for the middle class, and establishing paid family and medical leave.

“So, while other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours,” he said.

“We 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, and that includes IVF and fertility treatments.”

Tim Walz began his remarks on a note of gratitude, thanking the convention for backing him as Kamala Harris’s running mate.

“It’s the honor of my life to accept your nomination for vice-president of the United States,” Walz said.

Earlier, he had thanked Joe Biden “for four years of strong, historic leadership” and Harris “for putting your trust in me and for inviting me to be part of this incredible campaign”.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has called on the Democratic national convention to “center the humanity of the 40,000 Palestinians killed under Israeli bombardment”.

The uncommitted movement has been demanding that the convention bring a Palestinian American onto the main stage, and earlier this evening staged a sit-in outside the convention center. Ocasio-Cortez uplifted calls for a ceasefire in her convention remarks earlier in the week. Ocasio-Cortez’s message to the convention came the same night that parents of a Hamas hostage spoke on the main stage.

Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s pick for running mate, is about to speak to the Democratic national convention.

This will be the Minnesota governor’s most high-profile speech since Harris made him her pick for vice-president.

Up next was Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary under Joe Biden who is widely seen as having presidential ambitions.

“Here is a sentence I never thought I’d hear myself saying: I’m Pete Buttigieg, and you might recognize me from Fox News,” he began, in a reference to his habit of making appearances on the conservative news network.

He then tore into Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance, who has been something of a secondary target for Democrats this evening:

Don’t even get me started on his new running mate. At least Mike Pence was polite. JD Vance is one of those guys who thinks if you don’t live the life that he has in mind for you, then you don’t count. Someone who said that if you don’t have kids, you have ‘no physical commitment to the future of this country’. You know, senator, when I deployed to Afghanistan, I didn’t have kids. Then, many of the men and women who tied the wire with me didn’t have kids either, but let me tell you, our commitment to the future of this country was pretty damn physical.

Wes Moore, the Maryland governor who is another rising star in the party, recounted how he was able to get the economically important port of Baltimore reopened ahead of schedule, after it was blocked when the Francis Scott Key bridge was destroyed by a cargo ship.

“I joined the army when I was 17. In fact, I was too young to sign the paperwork. I had to ask my mom to sign the paperwork for me, because I don’t have bone spurs,” Moore said, referring to accusations from Democrats that Donald Trump faked a disability to avoid the Vietnam war.

Moore continued:

I led soldiers in combat in Afghanistan, and my training, my training, taught me that you never learn anything about anybody when times are easy. You learn everything you need to know about somebody, when times are hard, and when the temperature gets turned up. And, America, I saw that Kamala Harris is the right one to lead in this moment, firsthand.

And united with the Almighty God’s grace, we brought closure to the families of the six victims, and while many said it could take 11 months to reopen the Port of Baltimore, we got it done in 11 weeks.

Fun fact about Oprah Winfrey: she’s a registered independent, as she just told the Democratic convention, and is calling on like-minded people to vote for Kamala Harris.

“Let me tell you this, this election isn’t about us and them, it’s about you and me and what we want our futures to look like. There are choices to be made when we cast our ballot. Now, there’s a certain candidate that says, if we just go to the polls this one time, then we’ll never have to do it again. Well, you know what, you’re looking at a registered independent who’s proud to vote again and again and again, because I’m an American, and that’s what Americans do,” she said.

“Since I was eligible to vote, I’ve always voted my values, and that is what is needed in this election, now more than ever. So, I’m calling on all you independents and all you undecideds – you know this is true. You know I’m telling you the truth that values and character matter most of all, in leadership, in life, and more than anything, you know this is true, that decency and respect are on the ballot, and just plain common sense.”

Here is a clip from Winfrey’s speech at the DNC:

Winfrey continued her message of inclusion, with a swipe at JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate.

“Despite what some would have you think, we are not so different from our neighbors. When a house is on fire, we don’t ask about the homeowner’s race or religion. We don’t wonder who their partner is, or how they voted – no, we just try to do the best we can to save them,” she said. “And if the place happens to belong to a childless cat lady, well, we try to get that cat out, too.”

That is a reference to a remark from Vance that he’s been trying to walk back ever since Trump selected him as his vice-presidential pick last month: