Key events
Walz’s closing message: We’ve got 91 days. My God, that’s easy. We’ll sleep when we’re dead.”
“We just gotta fight,” he added. “We’ve just gotta fight, because as soon-to-be-president Harris says, ‘When we fight, we win.’”
Walz also appears to be enjoying his role as Harris’ attack dog on the campaign trail.
“Donald Trump’s not fighting for you or your family,” he said. “And I gotta tell you, his running mate shares his dangerous and backward agenda for this country.”
He was especially pointed in his takedown of JD Vance.
“Like all regular people I grew up with in the heartland, JD studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and then wrote a bestseller trashing that community,” he said, adding: “I can’t wait to debate the guy – that is if he’s willing to get off the couch and show up.”
The latter is cheeky reference to a completely unsubstantiated internet joke about Vance…
Walz seemed pleased with himself. “See what I did there?”
New Walz catch phrase alert: “Mind your own damn business.”
“In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and their personal choices that they make, even if we wouldn’t make the same choice for ourselves,” he said. “There’s a golden rule, mind your own damn business.”
A few in the crowd began to chant it after him.
Touting the campaign’s intent to restore reproductive rights, Walz referenced his own family’s use of in vitro fertilization (IVF), which some Republican lawmakers have threatened to limit along with access to abortions.
“When my wife and I decided to have children, we spent years going through infertility treatments, and I remember praying every night for a call with good news,” he said. When we welcomed our daughter into the world, we named her Hope.”
“When the vice president and I talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make your own health care decisions,” he said.
Tim Walz also lavished praise on his fellow Democratic governor Josh Shapiro.
Earlier, Shapiro had referenced his close friendship with Walz. Per the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Julia Terruso, the two attended a Bruce Springsteen concert together.
Little background on Shapiro saying Walz is a good friend – sources familiar tell me they once attended a Springsteen concert in Jersey together.
— Julia Terruso (@JuliaTerruso) August 6, 2024
Walz confirmed this reporting.
“I’ll tell you this, I know this from experience, there is no one you would rather go to a Springsteen concert in Jersey with,” Walz said of Shapiro.
Walz commends Harris’s ‘joy’ in first speech as part of ticket
“Thank you for bringing back the joy,” Walz said as he took the podium from Harris.
The Harris campaign said that it has raised $20m since Walz joined the ticket.
As Harris spoke, the Democratic party confirmed that Harris and Walz were certified as the nominees for president and vice-president.
“The announcement follows a transparent and democratic nominating process, during which delegates to the convention took seriously their responsibilities to cast their votes for our party’s nominee – with 99% of participating delegates supporting Kamala Harris in the virtual roll call,” the DNC noted in a statement. “The virtual roll call ensured that the Harris-Walz ticket has met all ballot access deadlines and every American will have the opportunity to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in the general election.”
Harris is really into the football references today.
Comparing Walz’s resume to that of JD Vance, Harris said, “Well some might say it’s like, a matchup between the varsity team and the JV squad.”
In a lengthy introduction, Harris is touting Walz’s many facets …
He’s a hunter, and a gun owner, who has fought for gun safety laws: “He was known as one of Capitol Hill’s best marksmen,” she said.
He’s an advocate for reproductive rights: “After Roe was overturned, he was the first governor in the country to sign a new law that enshrined reproductive freedom as a fundamental right.”
He supports voting rights: “He signed the most significant expansion of voting rights in Minnesota in over 50 years.”
Introducing Walz, Harris touts the governor’s many roles: father, coach, congressman and sergeant major.
Walz, beaming behind her, seemed especially chuffed by her mention of his work as a football coach. Of course, there are few things as American as football (my apologies to our international readers rankled by this sentence).
“Under those Friday night lights, Coach Walz motivated his players to believe they could achieve anything, and together, they defied the odds,” said Harris, hyping up her running mate.
She noted that Coach Walz was approached by a student who wanted to start a gay-straight alliance club at school, back in the 1990s. “Tim knew the signal that it would send to have a football coach get involved. So he signed up as faculty adviser,” Harris said. “He made the school a safe place for everybody.”
“Hold on, hold on,” Harris told supporters who began to chant “Lock him up”, co-opting the Maga rallying cry against Donald Trump’s rivals.
“This campaign, our campaign, is not just a fight against Donald Trump,” Harris said. “Our campaign, this campaign, is a fight for the future.”
Harris touts her official Democratic nomination and says ‘we got some work to do’
Kamala Harris – who announced to the crowd that she was now the official Democratic nominee, having earned enough votes from Democratic delegates – began by acknowledging the long journey ahead: “Now we got some work to do.”
“We are the underdogs in this race, but we have the momentum, and I know exactly what we are up against,” she said.
Harris and Walz take the stage
The duo were played on by Beyoncé’s Freedom, soaking in the roaring applause of thousands packed into the rally stadium.
“We’re doing this!” Harris beamed.
Walz had a hand on his heart.
“I am more optimistic than ever before,” Shapiro said – capturing a truly dizzying vibe shift among Democrats over the past two weeks.
In Philadelphia, Shapiro also referenced the city’s history as the birthplace of American independence.
“In Independence Hall, just a couple miles from here, nearly two and a half centuries ago,” Shapiro said, the founders declared independence from the British crown. “They came together to declare our independence from a king and we’re not going back to a king,” he said.
An riled-up crowd is now chanting “He’s a weirdo” – referencing Tim Walz’s now iconic characterizations of Donald Trump and JD Vance.
“Tim Walz, in his beautiful midwestern plainspoken way, he summed up JD Vance the best. He’s a weirdo,” Shapiro said, encouraging the crowd.
Earlier, Senator John Fetterman had referenced the same, effectively pithy insult.
“This election is about moving our country forward with Vice-President Harris and Governor Walz. Or a couple of really, really, really, really weird dudes,” Fetterman said.” “And look, I gotta tell you, I work with JD Vance … and I’m here to confirm that he is a seriously weird dude.”
“Let me tell you about my friend Kamala Harris, someone I’ve been friends with for two decades,” Shapiro said. “She is courtroom tough. She has a big heart and she is battle tested and ready to go.”
Shapiro is speaking to a riled-up crowd. “Not going back! Not going back!” the crowd chanted, as he brought up Donald Trump’s record.
“It was more chaos, fewer jobs and less freedom,” Shapiro said.
Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro speaks ahead of Harris and Walz debut
“I love you Philly!” Shapiro began. ““I love being your governor. You all fill my heart and I love you so much.”
Shapiro was considered a frontrunner for Harris’s running mate, along with Walz.
Tim Walz to join Kamala Harris for the first time on the campaign trail in Philadelphia
The rally will mark Walz’s first official campaign appearance since Harris selected him as her running mate earlier today, and for Walz will serve as an introduction to the country.
“I couldn’t be prouder to be on this ticket, and to help make Kamala Harris the next president of the United States,” he is expected to say, according to the campaign, which shared excerpts from his prepared remarks.
The Minnesota governor will share about his upbringing in Butte, Nebraska – a small town of 400 – as well as his experiences as a teacher and an elected official.
Lauren Gambino
At the Liacouras Center at Temple University in Philadelphia, crowds are filing in for a packed rally.
Sisters Stephanie Ford, 54, and Diane Harris, 59, said they wouldn’t have believed it if someone told them one month ago they’d be at a rally to support the first Black woman to lead a major party’s presidential ticket.
Harris – no relation to the vice-president – danced excitedly. She hadn’t seen people this excited to vote since Barack Obama in 2008. “It’s hope and change and newness,” she said. Ford, who runs a coffee shop, said she saw some of her customers in line on the way in.
Both said they were hoping Harris picked their governor, Josh Shapiro, to be her running mate. “I was hoping it was him,” Ford said, as her sister nodded. “But now we get to keep him for ourselves.”
Neither had heard much about the Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, who Harris announced on Tuesday would be her running mate. But they both said they liked what they were learning about him, especially what he’s done to help children in the state.
“I trust her judgement,” said Harris. “It was a win-win for us.”