DNC Day 3 takeaways: Tim Walz’s night, Bill Clinton’s Trump dig, influencers flex clout

CHICAGO (AP) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz accepted his party’s nomination for vice president Wednesday night, using his Democratic National Convention address to thank the packed arena for “bringing the joy” to an election transformed by the elevation of his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris.

“We’re all here tonight for one beautiful, simple reason: We love this country,” Walz said as thousands of delegates hoisted vertical placards reading “Coach Walz” in red, white and blue.

Many Americans had never heard of Walz until Harris made him her running mate, and the speech was an opportunity to introduce himself. He leaned into his experiences as a football coach, his time in the National Guard and his recounting of his family’s fertility struggles — all parts of his biography that Republicans have questioned in the days since Harris picked him.

While it’s unclear if the speech will attract new voters, he further charmed Democratic supporters with his background and helped to balance Harris’ coastal roots as a cultural representative of Midwestern states whose voters she needs this fall.

DNC Day 2 takeaways: Obamas close with Harris endorsement, Trump warnings

DNC Day 1 takeaways: Joe Biden’s exit, talk of the glass ceiling, a nod to Gaza protesters

The Harris campaign said Walz had worked on his speech for multiple days and he used a teleprompter for the first time, practicing to ensure he was prepared. He told the crowd, “I haven’t given a lot of speeches like this but I’ve given a lot of pep talks.”

“Some folks just don’t understand what it takes to be a good neighbor,” Walz said. “Take Donald Trump and JD Vance.”

Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, bashed the convention as a “charade” earlier Wednesday and noted that he has been a frequent topic of conversation. He also singled out his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, for a highly critical convention speech Tuesday night, saying Obama had been “nasty.”

Walz lays out his biography

Walz described his upbringing in Nebraska and teaching and coaching football in Minnesota and told the crowd, “Thank you for bringing the joy to this fight.”

But he also criticized Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, and took several swipes at Republican policies.

Walz has been accused of embellishing his background. His wife this week clarified that she did not undergo in vitro fertilization, as Walz has repeatedly claimed, but used other fertility treatments. Republicans also have criticized Walz for a 2018 comment he made about carrying weapons in war. Though he served in the National Guard for 24 years, he did not deploy to a war zone.

Walz has made his family’s struggle with fertility a central part of his narrative, a tangible way to connect with voters alarmed at the erosion of reproductive rights in the U.S. But Gwen Walz on Tuesday issued a statement that detailed the experience more comprehensively and disclosed that they relied on a different process known as intrauterine insemination, or IUI.

“If you’ve never experienced infertility, I guarantee you know someone who has,” Tim Walz said Wednesday.

His daughter, Hope, made a heart with her hands and held it over her chest.

His son, Gus, openly wept throughout the speech, wiping his eyes with tissues while watching from the front row.

Through tears he mouthed, “That’s my dad.”

The Bill and Oprah Show

Two prominent Harris boosters on Wednesday were people Trump has crossed paths during their shared decades in public life: Bill Clinton, the nation’s 42nd president, and Oprah Winfrey, the iconic talk-show host.

Ironically, she suggested years ago that Trump could be president one day, while Clinton was once close enough to Trump that he attended his 2005 wedding to his wife Melania.

In a convention designed to needle Trump, Clinton and Winfrey portrayed Trump as selfish and Harris as focused on the needs of everyday Americans rather than her own.

“We’ve got a pretty clear choice it seems to me. Kamala Harris, for the people. And the other guy who has proved, even more than the first go-around, that he’s about me, myself and I,” Clinton said.

Clinton returned to a place he knows well, the Democratic convention stage, firing up his party with his trademark off-the-cuff flourishes. He spoke about 10 minutes longer than Walz did in the headliner’s spot.

Now 78 — the same age as Trump — Clinton’s delivery was sometimes halting, his movements slower, and he mispronounced Harris’ first name twice. His left hand often shook when he wasn’t using it to grip the lectern.

Still, he delivered several memorable, homespun pronouncements including asking: “What does her opponent do with his voice? He mostly talks about himself. So the next time you hear him, don’t count the lies, count the I’s.”

Winfrey — who long filmed her famous talk show in Chicago — offered a full-throated endorsement of Harris and characterized her campaign by singing out, “Joy!”

“Decency and respect are on the ballot in 2024,” she said, adding, “Let us chose common sense over nonsense.”

A focus on ‘freedoms’

The night’s theme was “a fight for our freedoms,” with the programming focusing on abortion access and other rights that Democrats want to center in their campaign against Trump. Speaker after speaker argued that their party wants to defend freedoms while Republicans want to take them away.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis used a prop that has become a convention staple, an oversized book meant to represent the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a sweeping set of goals to shrink government and push it to the right, if Trump wins. Polis even ripped a page from the ceremonial volume and said he was going to keep it and show it to undecided voters.

Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz told the story of a woman in her state, which enacted new abortion restrictions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, who was forced to carry to term a child with a fatal illness, only to watch the newborn die just hours after birth.

Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi spoke about the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He chaired a congressional committee that investigated the mob overrunning the Capitol, saying, “They wanted to stop the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in American history.”

“Thank God they failed,” Thompson said.

Democrats also recognized the hostages still being held by Hamas after its Oct. 7 attack on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed. Jon and Rachel Goldberg-Polin brought some in the arena to tears as they paid tribute to their son Hersh, who was abducted in the attack.

Freeing hostages “is not a political issue. It is a humanitarian issue,” Jon Goldberg-Polin said, adding that “in a competition of pain there are no winners.”

The Israel-Hamas war has split the Democratic base, with pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrating outside the United Center and several speakers this week acknowledging civilian deaths in the Israeli offensive in Gaza. More than 40,000 people have died in Gaza, according to local health authorities.

The man from Hope talks about joy

Some of the loudest cheers of the night were for Clinton, who seemed to relish being a warmup act for Walz. A two-term president and generational leader of his party, he noted that he attended his first convention in 1976 — then corrected himself by saying it was actually 1972.

He implored delegates about the Harris-Walz ticket, “If you can get them elected and let them bring in this breath of fresh air, you will be proud of it for the rest of your life.”

“Your children will be proud of it,” he said. “Your grandchildren will be proud of it.”

Here are some takeaways from the third night of the DNC:

Walz offers himself as Midwestern everyman

For years, Republicans have caricatured Democrats as coastal elites who have little in common with ordinary Americans.

Walz tried to use his biography as a hunter, teacher, football coach and national guardsman from the Midwest to disarm those attacks, which Republicans in the past have wielded with merciless efficiency.

His presence on the ticket offers a counterweight in a year when Republicans are trying to paint Harris as a California liberal with dangerous ideas.

During his speech, Walz sought to turn Republican arguments on their head while making an appeal for common sense rooted in his Midwestern values.

“When they were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours,” he jabbed.

It’s a pitch aimed at constituencies that Democrats have struggled to connect with in recent years, namely rural, white voters who have increasingly abandoned the party.

Walz was introduced by Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who asked, “Who better to find common ground than a guy with Midwestern common sense?”

The Big Dog in twilight turns the age question toward Trump

Clinton has spoken at 13 straight Democratic National Conventions, going back to 1976. On Wednesday night he confessed, “I have no idea how many more of these I’ll be able to come to.”

It was a striking admission from a politician whose dominance earned him the nickname The Big Dog. Clinton, who just turned 78, didn’t shrink from his age, instead turning it into a poke at the GOP nominee, declaring, “I’m still younger than Donald Trump.”

In his 27-minute speech, Clinton leaned into what he’s seen over the decades and the burdens of history. He warned the convention crowd that, however good they feel, the campaign will be tough.

“You should never underestimate your adversary,” Clinton said. It could be taken as an allusion to watching his wife, Hillary Clinton, fall just short of the presidency in 2016.

‘Bring them home’

In a deeply polarized country, there was one group that was welcomed with loud applause at both the Republican and Democratic conventions — the parents of young men taken hostage after Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

Last month in Milwaukee, Ronen and Orna Neutra, told the gathering about the kidnapping of their adult son, Omer, and led the crowd in a chant of “bring them home!” On Wednesday, Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose 23-year-old son Hersh Goldberg-Polin was kidnapped on Oct. 7, walked onstage to the same chant.

“This is a political convention,” Jon Polin said. “But needing our only son and all of the cherished hostages home is not a political issue. It is a humanitarian issue.”

At the RNC, several speakers — though not the Neutras — slammed President Joe Biden and Harris for not deterring Hamas from its attack and for neglecting the hostages. Polin and Goldberg, for their part, said they’ve spoken repeatedly with the president and vice president and praised their efforts.

While the Republican convention framed Hamas as a threat to the United States, the Democratic convention has been comparably quiet about the war, even as pro-Palestinian protests demonstrate outside the hall demanding the administration stop supporting Israel.

Jan. 6 insurrection back in the spotlight

The Jan. 6 insurrection of 2021 has been a key part of Democratic campaigns ever since the attack on the U.S. Capitol shocked the country. Democrats gave it a place of prominence Wednesday night.

The centerpiece was a video showing Trump urging his supporters to march to the Capitol, the attacks on police officers and the Republican nominee’s pledges to pardon those who were prosecuted. That last bit drew chants of “lock him up” from the Democratic delegates.

Democrats want to step carefully, though, lest an attack on American democracy become just another partisan issue.

To that end, the segment kicked off with Republicans speaking about their worries about Trump. Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan recalled threats from Trump supporters when he refused to accede to the then-president’s demands in 2020 to declare him the winner in Georgia rather than Biden.

Duncan told fellow Republicans that if they vote for Harris, “You’re not a Democrat. You’re a patriot.”

Dems give freedom an expansive definition

Wednesday night’s convention theme was “Freedom.” Backed by Beyoncé’s song of the same name, which the musician has authorized the Harris campaign to use, the word flashed on the video screen and in speech after speech at the United Center.

Democrats firmly tied it to the fight over reproductive rights that went into overdrive after the fall of Roe v. Wade. But they also used the freedom argument to slam Republicans on other social issues, from gay rights to the spread of book bans in schools.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a gay man raising two children with his husband, tied it to the conservative Project 2025. The agenda was developed by the conservative Heritage Foundation and is seen as a potential blueprint for a second Trump term, although Trump says it is not related to his campaign.

“Project 2025 would turn the entire federal government into a massive machine, it would weaponize it to control our reproductive choices,” Polis said.

And in one of the evening’s most electrifying speeches, Winfrey said of freedom, “Every now and then, it requires standing up to life’s bullies.”

Democrats, long associated with Hollywood, look to online influencers

The Democratic Party boasts a cache of celebrity supporters who have repeatedly lent their glamor and opened their wallets to the party. Now they’re teaming up with those who have attained renown in a decidedly 21st-century way: online.

More than 200 content creators and influencers have been granted access to the DNC’s backstage events this week. And with tens of millions of followers, their coverage of the events can do more to get politicians’ messages out than traditional media and celebrity endorsements.

On TikTok, influencers like Deja Foxx post “OOTD,” or outfit of the day, videos on the DNC’s blue carpet. Her Wednesday fit included a matching khaki set, a pair of Nike Air Force Ones, and an oversized Prada jacket with giant pockets to hold all her equipment, “because slay,” she tells her 141K followers.

The creator has already interviewed Harris on her social media pages and spoke on behalf of Arizona’s delegation at the DNC.

Carlos Eduardo Espina, a Spanish-speaking influencer with 10.2 million followers on TikTok, addressed the convention Wednesday night, part of an appeal to young Latino voters who are crucial to getting Harris elected.

Espina seamlessly joined a senator, a border congresswoman and a Texas sheriff as defenders of the Biden-Harris stance on immigration. “To be pro-immigrant is to be pro-America,” he said.

The Democratic and Republican playlists play to their bases

The playlist at the Republican convention in Milwaukee last month was dominated by classic rock. Now, as the Democrats gather in Chicago, the musical offerings have been far more diverse.

The dueling soundtracks are a reflection of the two parties’ dramatically different voting bases. The GOP convention leaned heavily on the radio rock that was popular when much of their older, whiter base was young in the 1960s and 1970s. The Democrats’ musical offerings, meanwhile, include rap, R&B, indie rock, country, Americana — and, yes, some classic rock — in keeping with the party’s multi-racial coalition.

Across the first two nights at the DNC, there were appearances by Atlanta rapper Lil Jon and Americana singer-songwriter Jason Isbell. The Wednesday lineup included R&B stars Stevie Wonder and John Legend, the latter covering the songs of Minnesota icon Prince. Pop star Pink is slated to perform on the final night.

The GOP convention featured a house band that belted out covers of Aerosmith, Cheap Trick and Lynyrd Skynyrd tunes. The house band also backed up country singer Lee Greenwood, who performed “God Bless the USA.” Rap-rocker Kid Rock, an avowed conservative, also performed.

Editors’ note: This content from The Associated Press was curated by MyNorthwest editors.