Minnesota governor Tim Walz accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president on Wednesday night in a speech before the party’s convention that was filled with falsehoods about Republican positions on a number of issues, from abortion to entitlement reform.
Walz, like other Democrats who spoke at the convention in previous days, falsely suggested that access to IVF may be in danger. He spoke about his and his wife’s experience with using IVF to conceive their two children.
“I’m letting you in on how we started a family because this is a big part of what this election is about: freedom,” he said.
However, there is no evidence that Republicans are looking to ban IVF. In fact, the GOP platform passed at the party’s own convention last month expressly stated support for IVF. “We will oppose Late Term Abortion, while supporting mothers and policies that advance Prenatal Care, access to Birth Control, and IVF (fertility treatments),” the platform reads.
Walz touted how he has “protected reproductive freedom” as governor of Minnesota, where he says, “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.”
He went on to claim “some folks,” like former president Donald Trump and Senator J. D. Vance, “just don’t understand what it takes to be a good neighbor.”
“Their Project 2025 will make things much, much harder for people who are just trying to live their lives,” said Walz, who falsely attributed the policy playbook to Trump, though the former president has repeatedly disavowed the plan written by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Walz claimed that if Trump and Vance win in November, they will increase costs on the middle class, gut Social Security and Medicare, and “ban abortion across this country – with or without Congress.”
But even if Trump and Vance did plan to implement Project 2025, the proposal does not include a national ban on abortion or cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
And in fact, the Republican policy platform passed last month says the issue of abortion should be left to the states now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade — a position that Trump himself has repeatedly espoused.
Walz’s speech on Thursday evening marked his first opportunity to introduce himself on a national stage. He told viewers about his upbringing in Nebraska and his time serving in the National Guard (though he has come under fire for allegedly embellishing his service record). He recalled his experience as a high school social-studies teacher and football coach and said it was that job that inspired him to enter politics.
He patted himself on the back for winning a seat in Congress in a “deep-red district” as a political newcomer, though as NR’s Noah Rothman notes, the district had a Partisan Voting Index rating of R+1 in 2006.
When Walz later became governor in 2019, he says he “got right to work making a difference in our neighbors’ lives,” saying he cut taxes for the middle class, passed paid family and medical leave and increased resources for fighting crime and building affordable housing.
“While other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours,” he said.
But that leaves out some of the most radical things Walz has done as governor.
He has signed off on legislation to give numerous privileges to illegal immigrants, including access to state-funded health care and free college tuition. He also approved legislation in 2023 to give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.
He also watched as rioters burned down Minnesota cities during rioting in the wake of the murder of George Floyd in 2020, ordering the National Guard to stand down through several days of violent rioting. He even allegedly told Minneapolis police to “give up” the city’s Third Precinct Station as rioters set it aflame.
And he has proudly overseen the passage of some of the most pro-abortion legislation in the country, the “Protect Reproductive Options Act,” which codified the “right” to “reproductive health care” in the state, which was defined as including both “sterilization” and “abortion care.”
While Walz tried to paint himself as a happy warrior on Wednesday, he repeatedly lobbed attacks against Trump, who he claimed at one point could learn “a Hell of a lot about what a leader is” from the high-school students who serve as student body presidents at the high school where he once taught.
Still, Walz sought to end his speech on a positive note, admitting that while he hasn’t delivered many major speeches, he has delivered a number of pep talks as a high school football coach.
“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, for everyone watching, is to get in the trenches and do the blocking and tackling one inch at a time one yard at time.”
