Here is the full transcript of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s speech as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) convention.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
Wow. Wow. Wow. Hello, Los Angeles. Wow. Well, sisters and brothers in AFSCME, first and foremost, to each and every one of you, thank you for the privilege of being able to stand with you, because I know that AFSCME stands with the American workers. AFSCME stands for all that’s right. Let me acknowledge a few friends and the fighters who are here today with us.
It goes without saying, thank you to my friend and your president, Lee Saunders. We were just talking earlier, we’ve done a few doorknocks, we’ve done a few phone banks, we’ve done a few rallies, and we’ve worked together on a few laws to improve people’s lives. I said my friend, the important thing about this guy is, this guy is the friend to every American worker. So thank you, Mr. President.
Madam Secretary-Treasurer, thank you. Thank you for your leadership. The leadership team of AFSCME is there when we need them, always when they need them, making sure we not just win elections, but we understand.
Political Capital and AFSCME’s Impact
You don’t just win elections to bank political capital to win another election. You take that political capital and you burn it as fast as you can to improve people’s lives, and that’s what the leadership here does. To every delegate in this room representing 1.4 million AFSCME members, thank you. Thank you for what you do.
As a dues-paying member of my teachers’ union for years, let me just say thank you again for having a fellow union member here.
Here’s a little fact that they just told me. By the way, my week has been very interesting since last Tuesday, as you might guess. But here’s a fact they shared with me as I came here to make this opportunity to say thank you.
Union Representation in Politics
I happen to be the first union member on a presidential ticket since Ronald Reagan. But rest assured, I won’t lose my way. Probably should be a few more union members in elected office, President Saunders. We might want to work at that.
I think I’m looking at some. So you heard the story. You knew Vice President Harris, grew up in a middle-class family, picked up shifts at that McDonald’s as a student.
I keep asking this to make a contrast here. Can you simply picture Donald Trump working at a McDonald’s trying to make a McFlurry or something? Oh, he knows, he knows us, he knows us.
Contrasting Work Ethics
He couldn’t run that damn McFlurry machine if it cost him anything. But Vice President Harris took that work ethic, goes to work every single day to make sure families don’t just get by, but they get ahead. She stood on the side of the American workers, she stood up to the billionaires and fought corporate greed.
She led this administration’s work to eliminate the barriers to organizing. And let’s not forget, she cast the tie-breaking vote on the American Rescue Plan to keep public service workers on the job during the pandemic. Just to be clear, the Vice President and I, we know exactly who built this country.
It was nurses, it was teachers, and it was state and local government employees that built this nation. People in this room built the middle class. And it’s not just a saying, it’s a fact. When unions are strong, America’s strong.
Pro-Worker Policies
Vice President Harris and I have both had the privilege of joining workers on the picket line. And it’s why, as governor, I signed one of the biggest packages of pro-worker policies in history in the law. In Minnesota, we made it easier for workers to form unions.
We strengthened workers’ protections. And yes, we banned those damn captive audience meetings for good in Minnesota. Last time I said that at a union meeting, they sued me over it.
It was the best thing to get sued over I ever said. We’re going to continue to ban those meetings. But we did more than that for families and AFSCME workers that are there every single day.
Improving Lives in Minnesota
We did things to improve people’s lives in a real fundamental way. We guaranteed free breakfast and lunch to every single child in Minnesota. That helped a whole lot of school employees, AFSCME members, to keep their students engaged and keep them in the classroom learning.
Today, Minnesota is one of the best states for workers in the country. I’m surrounded by some that aren’t. So the vice president’s vision is to take those worker protections to every state in the union.
Every state in the union. I keep saying this. I know you know it, but I think it keeps us focused.
The Importance of Worker Protections
We all understand it in here. You’ve heard me say this. I know I’m preaching to the choir a little bit today, but the choir needs to sing.
The choir needs to sing. And just so you know who’s not in the choir, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, they see the world very differently than we do. The only thing those two guys knows about working people is how to work to take advantage of them.
That’s what they know about it. Every single chance they’ve gotten, they’ve waged war on workers, and their ability to collectively bargain to take that away from them, all’s we’re asking for is better wages, better benefits, better lives, and dignity in the work that we do.
Supporting Worker Rights
There’s a great bill in Congress, should be the easiest vote you’ve ever taken, the PRO Act. Make it easier to form a union and bargain. Allow people to have the freedom to make a choice.
Allow them to be able to do that. They also oppose the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, which would require states to bargain with their employees. Look, if you’re living in a state where you get to do those things, it’s one thing.
But our family and our neighbors and our fellow Americans are living in states where they don’t have that. So when it comes to these so-called right-to-work laws that deprive us of the right to be able to form unions, fund what we need, Trump has said he supports right-to-work 100 percent.
Criticizing Trump’s Stance on Workers
I saw our friend Sean Payne at the UAW, had a name for that. He called him a scab, just to be clear. That’s not name-calling. It’s an observation and fact, just to be clear. You know, you can tell a lot about people in their personal lives. He spent a decade stiffing service workers from dishwashers, waiters, and carpenters on his own properties to enrich himself.
As president, he cut overtime benefits for millions of workers, and he opposed any effort to raise the minimum wage. That’s all you need to know. You don’t have to ask twice.
Trump’s Priorities
We know who they are. A guy who goes to Mar-a-Lago, and this is a direct quote, he sits there and tells his friends, “You’re rich as hell and we’re going to cut your taxes.” I believe him when he says that.
But he also turns around and tells workers their wages are too high. I keep bringing this up. Who do you know who’s asking to cut taxes on billionaires while stiffing working people?
I don’t know anybody. And I’ll tell you what, I think there’s a lot of people think that they’re on his side or voting for him, that when you put it to them like that, they start thinking things differently.
The Importance of Engaging with Neighbors
This is where we need to talk to our neighbors. We need to engage. And I’ll tell you, his running mate, I don’t know if that was a value add to this campaign or not, but he’s one of four senators, four, that has never cast a vote on a pro-worker bill in his life.
Not once. A stop plus right twice a day. This guy can’t get it right once. Not once for workers. And by the way, these guys are even attacking me for my record of service. And I just want to say, I’m proud to have served my country, and I always will be.
Personal Service Record
With my dad’s encouragement, a guy who served in the Army during the Korean War, I signed up for the Army National Guard two days after my 17th birthday. I served for the next 20 or four years for the same reason all my brothers and sisters in uniform do. We love this country.
Then in 2005, I felt the call of duty again, this time being service to my country in the halls of Congress. My students inspired me to run for that office, and I was proud to make it to Washington. I was a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee and a champion of our men and women in uniform.
Pride in Service
I’m going to say it again as clearly as I can. I am damn proud of my service to this country. And I firmly believe you should never denigrate another person’s service record.
To anyone brave enough to put on that uniform for our great country, including my opponent, I just have a few simple words. Thank you for your service and sacrifice. But look, it’s not what they’ve done that we should be concerned with here today.
It’s what they’re going to do. One of the clear goals of that Project 2025 to-do list is to put the screws to working people, making it harder for us to collectively bargain, allowing employers to drastically cut overtime or even eliminate it.
Threats to Worker Rights
And make no mistake about this. Donald Trump and J.D. Vance want to eliminate Ask Me and all public sector unions altogether. Hell, they’re even going after the 40-hour work week.
Someone was joking and said, what’s next, child labor? Oh, yeah, that’s in there, too, by the way. Reducing the rules around our children, putting them into dangerous jobs again.
The folks who came before us spilled blood and treasure and spent their lives working to give us dignity and safety in our workplace so you can simply do a good day’s work and go home to your family’s safety at night. Project 2025 will take all that away.
Threats to Healthcare and Social Security
It will also repeal what you worked so hard for, the Affordable Care Act and its protections against preexisting conditions. And they’ve got Social Security and Medicare. I said this, too.
Look, I guess you can’t blame them if you’re billionaires. I don’t know, but I’m guessing billionaires aren’t waiting for their Social Security check to come in to get by. But I know people who are, like my mom, who depends on her entire retirement on Social Security benefits that she earned, by the way, and that we have… we should have every expectation that we’re not cutting taxes for the wealthiest while we hurt the most vulnerable amongst us. So be clear. Trump’s playing dumb.
The Reality of Project 2025
Oh, I don’t know about 2025. Some of you heard this say it, because I’m not ever closing the yearbook on this.
I’m a football coach at heart. And I’ll tell you one thing I know for sure is, if you’re going to take the time to draw up a playbook, you’re damn sure going to use it. So don’t think that they’re not going to use that playbook they drew up, because they’re going to.
But I want to be clear. It’s your neighbors. It’s our friends that have been in this.
I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about Trump, Vance, and this group that’s around them. Because some of you in here with no gray hair like me can remember when Republicans actually stood for and talked about freedom.
We know they’re there. We know those are our relatives. But it turns out that this guy means that freedom should be for the freedom of government to go into your exam room and tell you about your choices.
You’ve heard me say it. This is not hard. In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors, and we respect their personal choices.
Here’s the edited version of the text with appropriate punctuation, paragraphs, H2 headings, and important sentences in bold:
Respecting Personal Choices
Now, look. It’s not difficult. I might not agree with my neighbors’ choices or make the same one, but this country is great because we have a golden rule that makes things work. We mind our own damn business on those things.
We mind our own damn business. Why would you think I need your advice to tell me what books I can and cannot read or when to have a family or how to have a family or what religion to worship or how to organize? You stay in your lane, and I’ll stay in mine. That’s not that difficult.
So be clear. You watch our next president as she comes out on stage, and she comes out to a song about freedom. When she’s talking about freedom, she means you’re free to make your own health care decisions.
Freedom and Education
You don’t need us. You don’t need us. And as a school teacher, I’ll tell you what. Children should be free to go to school without worrying about being shot dead in their classrooms.
Education should be a ticket to the middle class, not crippling student loan debt. Here’s the thing. We don’t have that long to go here, but think about the future that we can create.
We know what the past is. We know what these guys are going to do because they wrote it for us, convenient to them to write it in Project 2025, so we know that.
A Vision for the Future
That’s not the future we want. We want the future, and here’s exactly what Vice President Harris will do when she gets to the White House. As Vice President Harris said, she will sign the PRO Act and the Public Service Freedom Negotiation Act right into law. Done.
We will stand together on the fundamental principle to collectively bargain for your own lives and your own jobs. And we believe in fairness. That’s what we believe in. That’s why corporations can start paying their fair share, and that’s how it works.
At the same time, what we did in Minnesota is lower taxes for the working folks, and we have the fairest tax system in the country, and things work out pretty well. We can protect Social Security. And something we did, and I want to thank, I know they’re in here, my Minnesotans who are in the house.
Achievements in Minnesota
It was asked me to put into place the most generous paid family medical leave in the country, in Minnesota. We’re investing in our public schools, and it’s, yeah, I’m a little biased on this one, but I think you’re probably with me on this. How about we give our teachers a long-overdue raise for the work that they do?
All right, I know, you’ve heard these speeches, big order, optimistic or whatever, but I’ve got to tell you, I will cop to being an eternal optimist. That’s me. But I come by it honestly.
I supervised the damn high school lunchroom for 20 years. You do not survive that job without being an optimist, I will guarantee you. And I also think, you’ve heard me say this, hope is the most powerful word in the English language.
The Power of Hope and Action
It was so powerful for when my wife and I first had our first child, we named our daughter Hope. But my wife often reminds me, hope is a great word and a beautiful name, but it’s not a damn plan. We can’t hope that we defeat Donald Trump.
We can’t hope that we can collectively bargain. We can’t hope we protect Social Security. We can’t hope that we address climate change.
You don’t hope to win, you plan, prepare, and work to win. Look at this place. This place is filled with people who like hard work.
The Power of AFSCME
These are people who get up and enjoy hard work and know how to get it done. So what do you think? A room full of 1.4 million AFSCME members in this room here.
How many voters do you think we could turn out in an hour? How many friends can we bring to the polls? We got over 4,000 people in this room.
We won states by less than 10,000 votes in some cases. And I don’t know about you, and I know it, this is going to be a close, tough race. It is going to be a tough one.
The Impact of Our Efforts
But if each of us does an extra shift, an extra hour, a little bit more, we get to wake up on that morning after the election and know that the work we did transformed the lives for millions, transformed generations, impacted the world. Ask me.
That’s how it happens. That’s how it happens. That’s a plan. That’s how the hope turns into the reality, turns into improved lives.
It’s just like that. We organize. We donate. We volunteer.
The Power of Organization
Look, I’ve been around you people. I know the jobs you do. I know what this president does because I thought you had to register to vote in Minnesota. You were out there so much for me because you were living there.
You turn elections. You turn lives. You negotiate contracts. You press legislatures to do the right thing.
We know how to do this. We’ve got 84 days to take control of our own destiny. Eighty-four damn days. And I’ve said this.
The Call to Action
You hear me say this. That’s easy. We’ll sleep when we’re dead. We’ll do the work now.
We’ll do the work now. And you do it. You do it for the most beautiful and selfless reason, because you believe in the very soul of your being that you believe in the promise of what America can be.
You believe we can all enter the middle class. You believe we can all have dignity. You believe we can all thrive.
Conclusion
But you know what? We’ve got to fight. Because as the next president of the United States says to me often, when we fight, we win. When we fight, we win. When we fight, we win. Thank you.
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