[DEMOCRACY IN ACTION Transcript  |   C-SPAN Video, +]

VIDEO: [GWEN WALZ voiceover and to camera] Out here in the wide open spaces, we are reminded of the values we share, a commitment to community, country and standing up for what's right.

Tim Walz grew up in a small town in Nebraska, where he spent summers working the family farm. There were just 24 students in his graduating class. His dad served during the Korean War, and that meant a lot to Tim, so he enlisted right after his 17th birthday and served 24 years in the National Guard, rising to Command Sergeant Major.

Tim went to college on the GI Bill and became a social studies teacher. That's where Tim and I met. We shared a classroom with a divider right down the middle. His classroom was a lot louder than mine, but I could hear how engaged his students were. Tim taught for over 15 years, and he coached football, helping lead the team to a state championship after zero wins just a few years before. Tim taught them how to believe in themselves and that we're all in this together.

When one of our students started the school's Gay Straight Alliance, Tim agreed to serve as faculty advisor because he knew how impactful it would be to have a football coach involved. He inspired his students, and he changed lives.

He is just so joyful in everything that he does, but I said also standing up for you know what he believes to be right? Stands up to bullies.

Then Tim's students inspired him to run for Congress in southern Minnesota. Tim spent a lot of time working with Republicans, fighting to help farmers and expanding veterans benefits. Whether it was in Congress or as governor, his focus has always been helping working people like those he grew up with. That's why he fought for the largest tax cut in Minnesota state history.

MAN: "Tim Walz was there for small businesses like ours."
WOMAN: "With the urging of Governor Walz, we were able to pass the Alex Smith insulin affordability act, and it has saved lives in Minnesota."

GWEN WALZ: With Tim as governor, Minnesota is one of the best places to raise a family and one of the best states for business. Tim is a lifelong hunter and gun owner.

But after the Sandy Hook school shooting, he knew that we had to do something. So he's fought for background checks and red flag laws.

But of all the things he's done, Tim loves being a dad. We struggled to have kids, and fertility treatments made it possible. There's a reason our daughter is named Hope. Hope and Gus mean the world to us.

NEW ANNOUNCER: "Governor Walz making good on a promise to his son and family yesterday by getting a little puppy."

WALZ at the Fair: Then we're going to go get some food. Corn dog?

HOPE WALZ: I'm vegetarian.

WALZ: Turkey then?

HOPE WALZ: Turkey's meat.

WALZ: Not in Minnesota. Turkey's special.

GWEN WALZ: He's as at home on a farm, a fishing boat, a football field or a factory floor as he is on the floor of Congress, Tim's commitment to service all comes back to the values we grew up with. Love your country, help your neighbor and fight for what's right, because that's what America is all about.

KAMALA HARRIS: Two middle class kids, one a daughter of Oakland, California, the other a son of the Nebraska plains. Only in America is it possible for them together to make it all the way to the White House


FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Please welcome The Democratic nominee for vice president, Governor Tim Walz.


[MUSIC: John Mellencamp "Small Town"]

 
WALZ: ...Thank you. Wow. Thank you. Thank you first of all, the Vice President Harris. Thanks for putting your trust in me and for inviting me to be part of this incredible campaign.

And a thank you, President Joe Biden, for four years of strong, historic leadership,

It's it's the honor of my life to accept your nomination for Vice President of the United States.

We're all, we're all here tonight for one beautiful, simple reason: we love this country. So thank you to all of you here in Chicago and all of you watching at home tonight. Thank you for your passion. Thank you for your determination, and most of all, thank you for bringing the joy to this fight.

Now, I grew up in Butte, Nebraska, a town of 400 people. I had 24 kids in my high school class, and none of them went to Yale. But I'll tell you what, growing up in a small town like that, you'll learn how to take care of each other. That family down the road, they may not think like you do, they may not pray like you do, they may not love like you do, but they're your neighbors, and you look out for them, and they look out for you. Everybody belongs and everybody has a responsibility to contribute.

For me, it was serving in the Army National Guard. I joined up two days after my 17th birthday, and I proudly wore our nation's uniform for 24 years. My dad, a Korean War era Army veteran, died of lung cancer a couple years later. He left behind a mountain of medical debt. Thank God for Social Security survivor benefits. And thank God for the GI Bill that allowed my dad and me to go to college, and millions of other Americans.

Eventually, like the rest of my family, I fell in love with teaching. Three, three out of four us married teachers. I wound up teaching social studies and coaching football at Mankato West High School. Go Scarlets. We ran, we ran a 44 defense, we played through to the whistle on every single play, and we even won a state championship.

Never closed the yearbook people, but it was those players and my students who inspired me 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.

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

I represented my neighbors in Congress for 12 years, and I learned an awful lot. 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 neighbors lives. We cut taxes for the middle class. We passed paid family and medical leave. We invested in fighting crime and affordable housing. We cut the cost of prescription drugs and helped 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.

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

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. This is personal for Gwen and I. If you've never experienced the hell that is infertility, I guarantee you you know somebody who has. And I can remember praying each night for a phone call, the pit in your stomach when the phone would rang, and the absolute agony when we heard the treatments hadn't worked. It took Gwen and I years, but we had access to fertility treatments, and when our daughter was born, we named her Hope. Hope. Gus and Gwen, you are my entire world, and I love you.

I'm letting you in on how we started a family, because this is a big part about what this election is about. Freedom. When 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. But when we Democrats talk about 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, and, yeah, your kids' freedom to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in the hall.

Look, I know guns. I'm a veteran, I'm a hunter, and I was a better shot than most Republicans in Congress, and I got the trophies to prove it. But I'm also a dad. I believe in the Second Amendment, but I also believe our first responsibility is to keep our kids safe.

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 coach 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.

And we know if these guys get back in the White House, they'll start jacking up the costs on the middle class, they'll repeal the Affordable Care Act, they'll gut Social Security and Medicare, and they will ban abortion across this country, with or without Congress.

Here's the thing, it's an agenda nobody asked for. It's an agenda that serves nobody except the richest and the most extreme amongst us. And it's an agenda that does nothing for our neighbors in need. Is it weird? Absolutely, absolutely, but it's also wrong and it's dangerous. It's not just me saying so, it's Trump's own people. They were with him for four years. They're warning us that the next four years will be much, much worse.

You know, when I was teaching every year we'd elect a student body president. And you know what, those teenagers 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. So I don't know about you, I'm ready to turn the page on these guys. So go ahead say it with me. We're not going back.

[Chants: We're not going back.]

We've got something better to offer the American people. It starts with our candidate, Kamala Harris. From her first day as a prosecutor, as a district attorney, as an attorney general, as a United States Senator, and then our vice president, she's fought on the side of the American people. She's taken on the predators and fraudsters. She's taken down the transnational gangs, and she stood up to powerful corporate interests. She has never hesitated to reach across that aisle if it meant improving your lives, and she's always done it with energy, with passion, and with joy.

Folks, we've got a chance to make Kamala Harris the next President of the United States, but I think we owe it to the American people to tell them exactly what she'd do as president before we ask them for their votes. So here, this is the part, clip and save it and send it to your undecided relatives so they know.

If you're a middle class family or a family 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 help make it more affordable.

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 it's what we want for our neighbors.

You know, you might not know it, but I haven't given a lot of big speeches like this. But I have given a lot of pep talks. So let me, let me finish with this, team.

It's the fourth quarter. 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. Kamala Harris is tough, Kamala Harris is experienced, and Kamala Harris is ready.

Our job, our job, our job, 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, one $5 donation at a time.

Look. We got 76 days. That's nothing. There will be time to sleep when you're dead. We're going to leave it
on the field. That's how we'll keep moving forward. That's how we'll turn the page on Donald Trump. That's how we'll build a country where workers come first, health care and housing are human rights, and the government stays the hell out of your bedroom.

That's how we 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. And as the next President of the United States always says, when we fight.

[Audience: We win!]

When we fight.

[Audience: We win!]

When we fight.

[Audience: We win!]

Thank you. God Bless.


[MUSIC: Neil Young "Rockin' in the Free World"]