CHICAGO — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz vehemently declared in his first major address to voters Wednesday that he and Vice President Kamala Harris “owe it to the American people” to detail the policies they would enact — despite Harris still lacking a policy page on her campaign website.
“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,” Walz, 60, said in his address to the Democratic National Convention.
The pair has come under persistent Republican criticism for not clearly outlining what policies voters can expect under a Harris-Walz administration.
The vice-presidential nomineethen proceeded to only vaguely describe four policies, offering scant details about how they would accomplish them.
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“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,” he claimed.
“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.”
Republican nominee Donald Trump’s campaign hours earlier launched a faux policy page for the Democratic ticket to call attention to the lack of a policy page on their website — in which the former president’s team listed some of Harris’ most controversial past positions.
Trump’s team noted that Harris, 59, previously supported policies to eliminate private health insurance and highlighted her performance as President Biden’s point person on reducing illegal immigration, which instead surged to new record highs in each of the first three years of their administration.
The official Democratic platform was drafted last month before Biden, 81, dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris on July 21 — and party delegates ratified the document this week without updating it to include recent policies mentioned by Harris, such as her controversial plan to impose price controls on groceries.
In a sign of its dated nature, the party platform refers 21 times to Biden’s second term.
Trump’s allies argue that Harris has been a political “chameleon” with shifting positions on major issues, making it difficult for voters to know what they would be getting under her administration.
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Meanwhile, Walz went on to emphasize his humble upbringing in his energetic 15-minute speech, as well as his transition from being a high school social studies teacher and football coach to being a member of Congress and then governor.
“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,” he said — in a jab at Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance, who attended Yale Law School after graduating from Ohio State University.
“But I’ll tell you what, growing up in a small town like that, you learn how to take care of each other … Everybody belongs. And everybody has a responsibility to contribute.”
Walz walked on stage after an introduction from a former student who recalled the future veep nominee pushing his car when it was stuck in the snow and an appearance by former football team members, whom he had led to a state championship.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
Walz described himself as a gun owner and expert marksman — saying he had “the trophies to prove it” from congressional shooting contests — and said he has “learned how to compromise without compromising my values.”
He notably skirted the controversy over his incorrect public remarks about his service in the National Guard — including saying in one instance that he served at war, which Vance, an Ohio senator who deployed to Iraq while in the Marine Corps, has denounced as “stolen valor.”
“I joined up two days after my 17th birthday, and I proudly wore our nation’s uniform for 24 years,” Walz said in his address.
“Thank God for the GI Bill that allowed my dad and me to go to college.”
Walz also has taken criticism for falsely saying that he conceived his first of two children using IVF — a procedure involving the removal of eggs to create embryos, which is threatened in some states by religious conservatives who believe the technique can involve the destruction of human life.
The couple actually conceived using an insemination procedure, his wife Gwen clarified Tuesday.
Walz obliquely mentioned the issue when vowing to protect “IVF infertility treatments,” saying on stage that “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 had ring, and the absolute agony when we heard the treatments hadn’t worked,” he said.
“It took Gwen and I years, but we had access to fertility treatments, and when our daughter was born, we named her Hope.”
He added, “I’m letting you in on how we started a family because this is a big part about what this election is about: freedom.”
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The veep nominee also touted his performance as governor.
“We cut taxes for the middle class. We passed paid family and medical leave. We invested in fighting crime and affordable housing,” Walz said.
“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. While other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours.”
He then slammed Trump and Vance by saying, “Some folks just don’t understand what it takes to be a good neighbor. Take Donald Trump and JD Vance.”
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He insisted that Trump’s administration would fulfill the controversial provisions in the Project 2025 agenda drafted by conservative activists, even though Trump has repudiated the plan from his allies.
“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.
“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,” Walz went on.
“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.”
