Tim Walz is running for vice president, but for a while Wednesday night it felt like he was campaigning for the position of the country’s high school football coach.
Before he spoke, about a dozen players from the team he coached to the Minnesota state championship decades ago ran onto the stage, some wearing their old high school jerseys and jumping to the sound of a marching band’s trumpets.
When Mr. Walz actually showed up, the delegates in the packed arena waved signs reading “Coach Walz” – and the crowd chanted “Coach, Coach, Coach!”
Since this was Mr. Walz’s first major opportunity to introduce himself to the nation, much of his speech revolved around his personal story – his time as a football coach, of course, but also his upbringing, his enlistment in the Army National Guard, his work as a high school teacher, and his service as a congressman and governor.
During parts of his speech, his daughter Hope, 23, and son Gus, 17, were seen standing in tears in the front row of the arena. “That’s my dad!” Gus mouthed as the television camera focused on him.
In the folksy style that Democrats believe will resonate with moderate voters in key Midwestern states, he told the crowd he was “ready to close the chapter on these guys,” referring to Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance.
“So say it with me: ‘We are not going back.'”
He followed a host of speakers and entertainers who took the stage on the third evening of the conference in Chicago, with Oprah Winfrey received the loudest applause after a surprise appearance in her hometown.
The four-day party extravaganza will culminate on Thursday night when Vice President Kamala Harris formally accepts the Democratic nomination, just over a month after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
But on Wednesday evening, everything revolved around Tim Walz, a man who was virtually unknown to most Americans just a few weeks ago.
He referred to the first speech he gave in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, earlier this month after being selected as Kamala Harris’s vice presidential running mate, and repeated some of the same witty remarks.
“In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and their personal choices,” he said. “And even if we wouldn’t make the same choices for ourselves, we have one golden rule: Mind your own damn business!”
Personal freedom has become a common theme among Democrats at this convention, and in keeping with that theme, Walz described it as “the hell of barrenness.”
IVF treatment is embroiled in the American debate over abortion rights, and the governor of Minnesota has repeatedly alluded to the procedure during the election campaign when speaking about his family’s history.
His wife Gwen recently clarified that they have gone through a different procedurewhich Republicans accused Mr. Walz of misleading things.
On the stage of the party conference, he said he wanted to talk about the couple’s difficulties in having children because this election was about “freedom.”
“When we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean your freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people you love,” he said.
“The freedom to make your own health care decisions. And yes, the freedom of your children to go to school without fear of being shot in the schoolyard.”
He also praised the Democratic priorities he implemented during his tenure as governor of Minnesota, including free school lunches, paid family and medical leave, tax cuts for the middle class and lower prescription drug prices.
“While other countries banned books from their schools, we banned hunger from ours,” he said to cheers.
But it was the coaching theme that he kept coming back to. As he attacked Donald Trump and JD Vance, he pointed to a frequent Democratic target – Project 2025, a think tank policy blueprint drafted in part by former Trump administration officials. The former president has distanced himself from its contents, but Mr. Walz had a ready retort.
“I’ve been a high school football coach long enough, and I promise you one thing: If someone takes the time to create a playbook, they’re going to use it,” he said.
And at the end, he did not stop at football metaphors and promised an encouraging speech while the crowd again chanted “Coach”.
AFP“It’s the fourth quarter,” he said. “We’re down a field goal. But we’re on offense. We’re storming down the field. And boy, do we have the right team to win this.”
Earlier in the evening, Ms Harris had the opportunity – if she was watching – to see some of the alleged finalists in her vice presidential selection process on stage.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spoke about the positive impact of the government, which has given him the opportunity to start a family as a gay man. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro also addressed the issue of personal freedom, placing great emphasis on education, reproductive rights and fair elections.
“Kamala’s and Tim’s names may be on the ballot,” he said, “but it’s our rights and our freedoms that are at stake.”
Ms. Harris, however, chose Mr. Walz — and his particular talents were on display Wednesday night. He did not have the high-flown rhetoric of Mr. Shapiro or the eloquence of Mr. Buttigieg, but Democrats hope his flat Midwestern accent, somewhat rotund build and thinning hair — combined with the speech of a small-town coach — will appeal to those voters who abandoned the Democratic Party when Trump was on the ballot.
Many Republicans expressed relief at Walz’s election, fearing the appeal Shapiro might have had in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.
And they have already attacked the governor of Minnesota, criticizing what they see as overly liberal policies and claiming that he has misrepresented not only the nature of his family’s fertility treatments, but also his rank in the Minnesota National Guard.
They haven’t yet found a way to undermine his coaching record, though. And if Wednesday night in Chicago was any indication, that – more than anything else – will be a central focus of Walz’s address to the public.
