Transcript: Tim Walz Speaks At Campaign Event In Arizona

Here is the full transcript of the Democratic Party’s nominee for vice president Tim Walz’s speech at a campaign event in Arizona on Friday, August 9, 2024.

Listen to the audio version here:

TRANSCRIPT:

Introduction and Gratitude

Hello, Arizona! Hey. Yeah. Wow. Well, you might have seen a few people showed up in Philadelphia the other night. And then 10,000-plus walked into a field in western Wisconsin. And then, on Wednesday, the largest crowd of the campaign showed up in Detroit, Michigan.

But Arizona just couldn’t leave it alone, could you? Wow. You know, it’s not as if anybody cares about crowd sizes or anything. Wow. Let me begin by giving a few thanks to some people here and a few dear folks to us.

Acknowledgments

First of all, I want to thank Arizona for sharing Senator Mark Kelly and Gabby Giffords with the rest of the country. Gabby was a classmate of mine in ’06, and they are both national treasures. Thank you, Arizona. Also had the privilege of serving with Congressman Gallego, and I’ll have to tell you — He was an amazing colleague, and I have to tell you, he’s going to be an amazing senator, but we get a — We get — We get a two-for with Ruben, because we know who is never going to be a United States senator.

So all the local elected officials, thank you, but the most important thank you to each and every one of you. Look, you took time out of your busy lives. You found babysitters. You took time off work.

You walked for miles in — look, I’m a Minnesotan. I’m like a damn snowman. I’m melting here. We walk on water half the year in Minnesota.

It’s so damn cold, but not you. You came. And you came into this space with neighbors. You came here for one beautiful, simple reason. You love this democracy.

Support for Kamala Harris

I’ll tell you what — I’ll tell you what — Wow. Wow. Wow. Well, I couldn’t be prouder to stand with you, and I couldn’t be prouder to be on this ticket.

You know what’s at the end of this little journey? Kamala Harris is the next president of the United States. This is a leader who wakes up every day on the side of the American people. This is — She will take on the presidency.

Harris’s Qualities

This is — She will take on the predators. She will take on the fraudsters. She will take on the transnational gangs. And she will stand up to the corporate interests and put Middle America first.

And she’s been effective. She’s been willing to reach across the aisle, no matter what, just to make sure it improves people’s lives. And I’ll have to tell you, I know a little something about commitment to people. Some of you heard this.

Personal Background

I was born in a small town in Nebraska, and we talk about small towns. These are those Nebraskans that moved out here for the winter, so — But look, small town was all about community. My mom and dad, they taught us to show some care to your neighbors, show some generosity, work towards a common good.

Be a decent human being to your neighbors. My dad, and some of you know him in here, you had him, a chain-smoking Korean War-era veteran, cared about his community, but two days after I turned 17, he took me down to join the Army National Guard. And for 24 years, I proudly wore that uniform.

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Education and Career

And I’m proud of that service, but what my nation gave my dad and millions of others and me was an opportunity to use the GI Bill to get a college education. My dad was a teacher. My brothers and sisters and I — My brothers and sisters and I all became teachers.

And we married teachers. I had the privilege of teaching high school social studies for 20 years. And you might have heard, coaching a state championship football team.

Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Now, if the Vikings could just win, that’d be the— Weaver and— Look. That worked better near Green Bay, I’ll tell you.

Look, it was my students. It was my students who encouraged me to run. They saw in me what I hoped to instill in them. A commitment to a common good.

Belief in Making a Difference

The belief, the true belief, that one person, one of us in here, can make a difference in somebody’s life. I wasn’t very politically savvy because I did not know it when I decided to run for Congress that there had been one other Democrat elected in that district since 1892. But my neighbors believed, and they graced me with an opportunity to serve them in the United States Congress for 12 years.

And I’m proud of the work I did as ranking member on the Veterans Affairs Committee, working on the Agriculture Committee. And I worked hand-in-hand with Republicans to make sure that we were crafting legislation that improved the lives of veterans and people all across this country. I learned how to compromise without compromising my values.

Experience as Governor

And as governor of the great state of Minnesota, I brought all of those experiences, I brought all of those experiences to the challenges facing the state of Minnesota. This idea about a common good. This idea about something bigger than ourselves.

This idea of kindness, generosity, and compassion. That this building, which I have been told, by the way, might be the largest political gathering in the history of Arizona. I think it’s safe to say Donald Trump sees the world a little differently than we do.

Criticism of Donald Trump

First and foremost, and be very clear about this, he doesn’t know the first thing about service. It’s hard to provide service when you’re too busy serving only yourself. Again and again and again, Donald Trump weakens our country to strengthen his own hands.

You’ve watched him mock our laws. You’ve watched him sow chaos and division at every opportunity. And that’s to say nothing of his record as president.

Trump’s Handling of COVID-19

As governors, as governors, he froze during COVID and pitted us in a hunger game against our neighbors to try and find basic life-saving needs. And because of him, our neighbors died. By failing to address COVID, he drove the economy into the ground.

And let’s be very clear. The statistics and the facts are clear about this. Violent crime was up under Donald Trump.

Call to Action

And we don’t even have to count his crimes in that to make it up. Look. Those. Better yet, beat the hell out of him at the ballot box.

Beat the hell out of him at the ballot box. Look. You and I, especially the gray hairs in the crowd, we know, we know our relatives. Republicans used to be the people talking about freedom.

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Critique of Republican Views

Not this group. When they talk about freedom, it means that the government should be free to invade your exam room with your doctor. Look. In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and the personal choices they make.

We maybe wouldn’t make the same choices, but we respect them. And I know in Minnesota and in Arizona and places across this country, you know what makes society work best? Is when you learn a golden rule. Mind your own damn business.

Personal Freedom

Mind your own damn business. We don’t need it. I don’t need you telling me what books to read. I don’t need you telling me about what religion we worship.

And I sure the heck don’t need you to tell me about my family. Look. This one’s personal for me. This one’s personal for me.

Personal Experience with IVF

About IVF and reproductive care. When my wife and I, my wife of 30 years, because yes, we share family values, we just make our own damn choices about our family. But when we wanted to have children, we went through years of fertility treatment.

And I remember it was like it was yesterday, just waiting for good news. And then the phone would ring and you would be tensed up, and then you would hear that the treatments had failed. It was a — it would blot out the sun that you just wanted something so beautiful and so simple to have a child.

A Message of Hope

And then one day, and it wasn’t by chance, when that news came, and we welcomed our daughter into the world. We named her Hope. We named her Hope.

I’m not crying, you’re crying, so — When Vice President Harris and I talk about freedom, we’re very clear. We mean the freedom to make your own health care decisions. And for all of our children to be free to go to school without worrying they’ll be shot dead in their classroom.

Gun Rights and Gun Violence

And in Minnesota, believe me, we believe in the Second Amendment, but we also believe in common-sense gun violence laws. I remind my colleagues when I was in Congress, Ruben could tell this story, for three years in a row I was the top gun in the congressional trap shoot, so we can shoot better than them too, just by the way. When Vice President Harris talks about freedom, it’s when freedom is when education is a ticket to the middle class.

Not crippling student loan debt. And this building, and what we believe in, we are people that settle our political differences not through violence, but through voting. The — Imagine, every person in here is going to vote, and every person in here is going to get 10 other people to vote, and here’s — And let’s just go ahead and not go through this thing that it’s so close.

Call for a Big Win

Let’s just win big, people. Let’s just win big. That’s our choice. How often — how often do you get a choice so simple that this is going to decide the direction of our country?

We have 87 days to decide the direction we’re going to go, and I’ve been saying it. We can do anything for 87 days. Anything. And my mantra is — and look, you can see it on me over the last five days — we’ll sleep when we’re dead.

Urgency of the Moment

We’ll sleep when we’re dead. Not now. Not now. Look, you know it, and I know it, but I think we need to be reminded, you know exactly what Donald Trump’s plans are.

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You know which direction he’s taking us. Don’t believe this guy. Don’t believe — that’s — like, listen, no one in here believes this guy, so anyway.

Warning About Project 2025

But don’t believe it when he’s playing dumb about this Project 2025. He knows exactly what it’ll do. They are not playing.

They wrote their plan out. But just like they’re getting arrogant about it, they’re saying the quiet stuff out loud. It’ll take our freedoms.

Consequences of Trump’s Potential Return

It’ll rig the economy for the super-rich. It’ll underfund veterans. And you know that if he goes back again, he’s not only going to let go where he left off, it is going to be much, much, much worse.

So, look, rising costs, pulling health care from us, you know the whole routine. Look, I get this, too. I know I’m preaching to the choir, a damn big and beautiful choir.

But practice is over, people. The choir needs to sing. The choir needs to sing. Trump, stop fighting for your family. He doesn’t give a damn. And his running mate shares the same dangerous, twisted, backward agenda.

Criticism of Trump’s Running Mate

Yeah, every kid, every kid in my class of 25 studied at Yale, had their career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and then writes a book trashing the very people who raised you. I’ve said it. It wasn’t a name.

It was an observation. These guys come up with the weirdest damn ideas that you will ever imagine. You know it’s true.

The Stakes and the Future

But here’s the good news. We know the stakes. We know who they are.

When they told us, we believed them. We know what’s coming. But here’s the big thing about it is, that’s a reality that’s not going to happen because of the people in this building, and millions across the country. This is a campaign about the future.

Belief in Shaping the Future

We know what’s there. We know it can come. We’re not people who are afraid of the future. We shape the future.

Kamala Harris believes in the freedom to make your own choices. She believes in the opportunity for every single person to enter the middle class. And she believes something so beautiful. She believes in the promise of America.

Gratitude and Introduction

The promise of America. So I want to say thank you, Madam Vice President, for the trust you’ve placed in me. And I want to say something else.

And I want to say something else. That this incredible leader, this incredible woman has brought to this fight. She has brought back compassion and decency and humor and joy to our politics.

So Arizona, Arizona, bring that joy with you. Bring those smiles. Bring that positive future as you join me in welcoming the next President of the United States, Kamala Harris.