Muhamad Yehia
CHICAGO (AP) — The Democratic National Convention’s third night showcased a familiar former president, Bill Clinton, and introduced more Americans to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, little known outside his state until Vice President Kamala Harris selected him as her running mate.
Walz, with his background as a former teacher and football coach, used his speech to put a small-town spin on the Democrats’ agenda of protecting individual freedoms and rejecting what they paint as the intrusive policies of Republican Donald Trump.
Wednesday’s program also highlighted plenty of up-and-coming Democratic politicians and media mogul Oprah Winfrey, who gave an energetic speech in support of the party’s ticket.
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.”