Minnesota Governor Tim Walz took the stage at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, where he officially accepted the vice presidential nomination in front of a raucous audience in Chicago’s United Center.
“It is the honor of my life to accept your nomination as vice president of the United States,” Walz declared to deafening cheers within the arena. Walz spoke in front of a sea of “Coach Walz” signs, and used several football metaphors throughout his speech, which came shortly after a member of the high school team he coached spoke at the convention, backed by several other players from the team.
As has become a common occurrence in Walz’s campaign speeches, he framed his address to the convention around the concept of neighborliness.
“Growing up in a small town like that, you learn how to take care of each other,” he said. “That family down the road, they may not think like you do, and they may not pray like you do. They may not love like you do. But they are your neighbors. And you look out for them. They look out for you.”
“Everybody belongs,’ Walz said. “Everybody has a responsibility to contribute.”
The speech was joyous, rousing, and emotional. Walz spoke about how it took him and his wife Gwen years to conceive. They were ultimately able to with the help of fertility treatments. “Hope, Gus, and Gwen: you are my entire world and I love you,” Walz said, fighting back tears and gesturing to his family in the audience, who were in tears themselves.
But while Walz brought emotion into the arena, he pulled no punches in discussing the 2024 Republican platform.
“Some folks just don’t understand what it takes to be a good neighbor,” Walz said. “Their Project 2025 will make things much much harder for people who are just trying to live their lives.”
“They spend a lot of time pretending they know nothing about this but I have taught high school football long enough to know — and trust me on this — that when somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they are going to use it,” he added. “It is an agenda that serves nobody except the richest and most extreme amongst us. It is an agenda that does nothing for our neighbors in need, and is it weird? Absolutely. Absolutely. But it is also wrong and dangerous.”
Walz contrasted his criticism of Republicans with his and Harris’ vision for the nation. “If you are a middle-class family or a family trying to get into the middle class, Kamala Harris will cut your taxes,” he said. “If you are getting squeezed by prescription drug prices, Kamala Harris will take on big pharma. If you are hoping to buy a home, and she will help it to be more affordable. No matter who you are, Kamala Harris will stand up and fight for your freedom to live the life that you want to lead.”
Walz, just weeks ago a relatively unknown governor, has skyrocketed into the public consciousness as the dark horse contender to become Harris’ running mate. Walz — a former high school teacher and 24-year veteran of the National Guard — entered politics much later in life than your stand issue politico. His working-class credentials, down-to-earth attitude, and Midwestern dad charm made him a viral sensation among Democrats.
“You know, I haven’t given a lot of big speeches like this one in my life,” Walz said on Wednesday. “But I’ve given a lot of pep talks. So let me finish with this: Team, it’s the fourth quarter. We’re down a field goal. But we’re on offense. We’re driving down the field. And, boy, do we have the right team to win this. Kamala Harris is tough. She’s experienced. And she’s ready.”
Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World” kicked in as soon as Walz finished speaking, after which he was greeted by his family onstage. CNN reported that Young personally gave the DNC permission to use the song. He has previously sued the Trump campaign for using it.
Walz is an inspirational force, but he’s also an incredibly effective and ruthless messenger against the GOP’s political agenda, and he knows how to communicate progressive policies to centrist voters. He first entered politics by defeating a six-temp Republican incumbent to nab a seat in the House of Representatives, and would hold that seat for six terms himself even as his district voted for Trump in the general election. Walz is credited with slapping the incredibly sticky label of “weird” on Trump, his running-mate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), and the GOP at large. The dig is driving conservatives up the wall.
As previously reported by Rolling Stone, the Harris campaign plans to deploy Walz as a “sledgehammer against Vance and Trump” between now and election day.
“We are running against a weird dangerous agenda of taking away people’s rights, monitoring women’s pregnancies, and other insane hurtful bullshit like making Trump a dictator,” one source close to the campaign previously told Rolling Stone. “The antidote to that is a regular guy in Tim Walz — a veteran, football coach, friendly neighbor who helps fix your car, and a really successful governor.”
President Donald Trump discussing Venezuela at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago.
Why Venezuela Could Be a Turning Point in Gen Z’s Support for Trump
When Donald Trump called himself “the peace president” during his 2024 campaign, it was not just a slogan that my fellow Gen Z men and I took seriously, but also a promise we took personally. For a generation raised in the shadow of endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it felt reassuring. It told us there was a new Republican Party that had learned from its failures and wouldn’t ask our generation to fight another war for regime change. That belief stood strong until the U.S. overthrew Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Growing up in the long wake of the wars in Iraq in Afghanistan shaped how my generation learned to see Republicans. For us, “traditional” Republican foreign policy became synonymous with unnecessary conflicts that caused young people to bear the consequences. We heard how Iraq was sold to the public as a necessary war to destroy weapons of mass destruction, only to become a long conflict that defined the early adulthood of many millennials. Many of us grew up watching older siblings come home from deployments changed, and hearing teachers and coaches talk about friends who never fully came back. By the time we were old enough to pay attention, distrust of Bush-era Republicans wasn’t ideological, it was inherited from what we had heard.
As the 2024 election was rolling around, that dynamic had flipped. After watching wars in Ukraine and Gaza dominate headlines while Joe Biden was president, the Democrats were now the warmongers. My friends constantly told me how a vote for Kamala Harris was a vote to go to war. On the other hand, Donald Trump and the Republicans were the ones my friends thought could keep us safe. “I’m not voting for Trump because I love him,” one friend told me. “I’m voting for him because he cares about us and I don’t want to go fight in a stupid war.” For many of my friends, much of their vote came down to one question: Who was less likely to send us to fight? The answer to them was pretty clear.
Fast forward to now, and Venezuela has begun to complicate that belief. Even without talk of a draft or a formal declaration of war, the renewed focus on U.S. involvement and troops on the ground has brought back the same language of escalation my generation was taught to distrust. Young men online have been voicing the same worries, concerned that the ousting of Maduro mirrors the early stages of wars they were raised to fear. When I asked a friend what he thought about Venezuela, he shared that same sentiment. “This is how all these wars always start,” he told me. “They might try to make it sound like it’s not actually a war, but people our age always end up being the ones that pay the price for it.” For young men who supported Trump because they believed he represented a break from interventionist politics, Venezuela blurs the line between the “new” Republican Party they thought they were backing and the old one they were raised to reject.
For many young men, Venezuela has become a major part of a broader shift of how they view Trump. A recent poll from Speaking with American Men (SAM) found that Trump’s approval rating has fallen 10 percent among young men, with only 27 percent agreeing with the statement that Trump is “delivering for you”.
Gen Z men’s support of Trump was never about ideology or party loyalty, it was about the idea that he had their back and would fight for them. But that’s no longer the case. Recently, Trump proposed adding $500 billion to the military budget. Ideas like that will only hurt the president with young men. My friends don’t want more military spending that could get us entangled in foreign wars; they want a president who keeps them home and fights for their economic and social needs. As Trump pushes for a bigger military and more intervention abroad, the promise that once made him feel like a protector of young men now feels out of reach.
For my generation, Venezuela isn’t just another foreign policy dispute, it’s a conflict many young men worry they could be the ones sent to fight. Gen Z men didn’t support Trump because he was a Republican, but because they believed he was different from the old Republicans. He would be a president who would have their back, fight for their interests and keep them from fighting unnecessary wars. Now, that promise feels fragile, and the fear of being the ones asked to face the consequences has returned. For a generation raised on the effects of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the idea of another war isn’t abstract, it’s personal.