‘We love this country’: Tim Walz delivers pep talk on third night of DNC

CHICAGO — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz introduced himself to the nation, just weeks after the presidential race flipped upside down and Vice President Kamala Harris selected him as her running mate.

“We’re all here tonight for one simple reason: We love this country,” he told the thousands of conventiongoers Wednesday night after officially accepting the Democratic nomination for vice president.

Since Walz entered a bigger political sphere with greater scrutiny, he and the campaign have had to navigate attacks from opponents as well as raise the public’s awareness of the governor’s life and record.

The Trump-Vance campaign and Republicans have criticized Walz for what they say are misrepresentations and exaggerations about his military service and the nature of his family’s fertility treatments. Still, Walz had a smoother launch as a running mate than that of Ohio Sen. JD Vance, with more adults having a favorable view of Walz than Vance, according to a mid-August poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Defining Walz

Both Walz and Vance remain relatively unknown to the public, and both Democrats and Republicans have been working to define the new contestant in the race.

During the third night of the convention, speakers, videos and the governor himself detailed his background. The Minnesota governor grew up in Nebraska, enlisted in the Army National Guard when he was 17 and served for 24 years. He rose as high as the rank of command sergeant major before retiring at the rank of sergeant major, according to the Harris campaign, and attended college with the help of the G.I. Bill. He became a social studies teacher and coached football before serving in Congress and then as governor.

The Democratic National Committee showed interviews with past students and brought onstage former football players he coached. His wife, Gwen Walz, explained in a video how he served as faculty adviser for the Gay Straight Alliance because he knew how impactful it would be for the football coach to be a part of the group.

“You might not know it, but I haven’t given a lot of big speeches like this,” Walz said. “But I have given a lot of pep talks. So let me finish with this, team: We’re down a field goal, but we’re on offense and we’ve got the ball. We’re driving down the field, and boy do we have the right team.”

Republicans in Minnesota have criticized Walz for implementing policies they believe to be too liberal, such as signing a bill that put free feminine hygiene products in school bathrooms, eliminating nearly all of the state abortion restrictions enacted in the past by Republicans and protecting gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

On Wednesday Republicans went after Walz’s military record, with 50 GOP veterans who serve in Congress signing a letter to Walz urging him to “come clean” about his military service.

“To be blunt, when you falsely claim military service that did not happen and abandon your post, you diminish the real sacrifices made by veterans who did serve in combat,” the letter said.

Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., said during a news conference at the Trump tower in Chicago that he knows many people who served and never went to combat and should be proud of their service. The congressman said Walz was a sergeant major for a few months but did not do the schooling and service necessary to retire at that rank. Walz reached the rank of command sergeant major but retired at the rank of sergeant major because of not fulfilling the requirements to retire at the higher rank.

“Why do you have to lie about it? Why do you have to exaggerate it?” said Waltz, who served 22 years in the National Guard, during a Trump-Vance campaign news conference Wednesday morning.

Clarifying his record

The New York Times reported that four veterans who investigate cases of deception about service do not think that he violated the Stolen Valor Act, but that he did misrepresent his record at times or has not always been precise.

Walz said in 2018 that he carried a weapon in war, but he has not been in war. Harris’ campaign has since said he misspoke, and Walz has defended his military service.

On Wednesday night, he said he “proudly wore the uniform for 24 years.”

Walz talked about his time running for Congress and the odds against him in running a deep red district. “But you know what? Never underestimate a public school teacher,” he said, receiving loud applause from the crowd.

He highlighted his accomplishments, including providing free breakfast and lunch to school kids and passing paid and medical leave.

Walz also brought up his family’s fertility experience, a story he has told on the campaign trail that he has received criticism for.

“If you never experienced the hell that is infertility, I guarantee you know somebody who has,” Walz said. He said when his daughter was born, they named her Hope. His family, emotional, sat in front of the stage and cheered him on.

His wife clarified in a Glamour interview that they went through intrauterine insemination (IUI) treatments to conceive Hope.

Walz continued the Democrats’ talking point warning of the dangers of Project 2025, a conservative blueprint of policy proposals that Trump has distanced himself from despite members of his previous administration having written it.

“It’s an agenda that nobody asked for,” Walz said. “Is it weird? Absolutely. But it’s also wrong.”

The former congressman had risen up as a dark horse candidate for the VP slot after his calling Vance “weird” went viral.

Rebutting major criticisms

Before the vice presidential candidate wrapped up the evening, the third night of the DNC featured messages rebutting the most common attacks against the Harris campaign, from immigration to foreign policy.

The DNC showed a video explaining the border and how Republicans in Congress blocked a bipartisan immigration package. The video showed Harris saying that she will sign that bipartisan border package into law.

Javier Salazar, sheriff of Bexar County, Texas, said Harris has been fighting border crime for years and said she worked to stop the traffickers and put them in jail.

“The border sheriffs that I know, and I, we’re like Kamala,” Salazar said. “We protect and serve, we enforce the law, we show compassion and we fight like hell to protect our border.”

Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg talked about their son Hersh, who was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7. Goldberg said her son and his friend went to a music festival. When rockets began to fall, he took shelter. He survived the attack but was injured before being taken hostage.

“This is a political convention,” Polin said. “But needing our cherished son and all of the cherished hostages home is not a political issue. It is a humanitarian issue.” The crowd chanted, “Bring them home.”

Polin said Biden and Harris are working on a peace deal that will bring families home and “stop the despair in Gaza.”” He called for a deal that brings the hostages home and ends the suffering of civilians in Gaza.

“Hersh, if you can hear us, we love you. Stay strong. Survive,” Goldberg said.

The convention also showed footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. It showed both camera and police body cam footage and said nine people died in connection to the insurrection. It criticized Trump for pledging to pardon the rioters. The crowd chanted, “Lock him up.”

“Let us not forget who assaulted democracy on Jan. 6,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said. “He did.”

Other heavy hitters, including both political and entertaining ones, made an appearance on stage. Oprah Winfrey, John Legend, Mindy Kaling and Kenan Thompson gave speeches or performances, and political leaders like former President Bill Clinton, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar spoke.

Contact Jessica Hill at jehill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @jess_hillyeah on X.