CHICAGO—James Hepworth, a delegate from the southern Minneapolis suburb of Apple Valley, will be among thousands of DNC delegates to witness Gov. Tim Walz’s speech accepting the vice presidential nomination on Thursday.
Hepworth has known Minnesota for more than two decades. Six years ago, when Hepworth was in intensive care recovering from a heart attack, he received a call from Walz.
“My family’s all there with me, and my telephone rings and it’s Tim Walz, ‘Jim, are you okay?’” Hepworth told The Epoch Times from the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center on Aug. 20.
“And then for two years afterwards, he would come up and say, ‘Jimmy, doing okay?’ And then he would go ask my wife to make sure I was telling him the truth.”
Minnesota’s 93 delegates told The Epoch Times that they are anticipating an acceptance speech from their governor, which they believe will leave a lasting impact on the campaign ahead.
“We’re really excited. I’ve known Gov. Walz since before he ran for Congress. He’s just an amazing person. He’s just full of energy,” Hepworth said.
Hollies Winston, another Minnesota delegate and mayor of Brooklyn Park, agreed.
“I think many of us are specifically excited because of just his character and things he’s done right for the community,” Winston told The Epoch Times.
In the two weeks since Vice President Kamala Harris selected the Minnesota governor as her running mate, he has traveled across the country, visiting Red, Blue, and swing states in an effort to consolidate support for the Democratic Party ticket, while highlighting his political experience and the years he spent teaching in public schools.
Zee Cohen-Sanchez, a Democratic Party strategist, told The Epoch Times that “this will be the biggest speech of [Walz’s] career, and how he handles tomorrow will set the stage for what the next 77 days will be like.”
She added that Walz will likely focus on abortion, but hopes he will also highlight the economy.
Speech Expectations
Eugenio Lopez, a Minnesota delegate who entered politics at age 14 in 2018, said that he felt amazing about Harris picking his governor as her running mate.“Governor Tim Walz is himself,” Lopez told The Epoch Times. “He has been himself since he ran for Congress, as the governor, and soon to be vice president. There’s nothing that hides behind the scenes. He has been true to himself since day one, since he started this.”
Regarding Walz’s speech, Lopez said the governor will speak about what he has done in his life including his work as a congressman, governor, father, teacher, and former national guardsman.
He said Walz has “Minnesota dad energy, and who doesn’t love that?”
For Winston, Walz can reach out to voters beyond the Midwest in his convention speech by emphasizing his administration’s policies in Minnesota.
“I think one of the things Walz can say is, ‘Listen, we believe in these values,’ whether it’s free lunches for kids, whether it’s in Minnesota strengthening black families [with the] African American Preservation Act,” he said.
“He gets to come out there and say, ‘Look, these are real values, we care about people at the most basic level, as individuals and as human beings.”
The mayor added that Walz can tell voters he’s ready to fight for these principles as vice president.
“He can say, ‘I’m willing to fight for this. I’m willing to do every tough thing to do to make this happen. I’ve shown you what it looks like in terms of prosperity within the state of Minnesota ... and I’m gonna bring a lot of that to the Capitol.’”
Hepworth said that Walz’s speech will likely highlight the governor’s excitement in joining the presidential ticket.
Walz is a “team player, but he’s really excited to help Kamala, and [he will say] that he’s going to support her and be whatever she’s asking him to [be].”
“He’s not going to walk out very slowly. He’s going to jog out with a big smile on his face and throw his arms up,” Hepworth added.
Josh Goldstein, a Minnesota delegate, veteran, and former Democratic Party operative, told The Epoch Times that he expects Walz’s speech to highlight the party’s path forward.
Broader Appeal
Goldstein sees Walz locking down the Midwest vote, even beyond the North Star State.“The Twin Cities Minneapolis and St Paul is the largest community in a large part of the country, which means the western part of Wisconsin gets their television from the Twin Cities,” he said. “So they'll already know [Walz].”
When it comes to policies, Walz has faced criticism from some Republicans, including Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), for his agenda as governor of Minnesota.
David Schultz, a political science professor at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, told The Epoch Times that Walz appeals to constituencies in the Democratic Party’s progressive wing.
For his first term, Democrats had a split legislature with Republicans. Walz’s “real transformation occurs,” Schultz adds, after winning reelection in 2022 with a larger margin. The Democratic Party also won both chambers.
“At this point, the legislature moves to the left, and it starts enacting a lot of what we would call kind of the progressive dream legislation for the Democrats,” Schultz said.
Winston said many may call these positions progressive, but he sees them as “good policy,” emphasizing his state’s thriving economy.
“So I think many of those progressive policies have for decades, undergirded the success of Minnesota,” he said.
“I’m excited that we have a governor who can actually go out there and say, ‘You may not know about Minnesota. You may not know [it is] the home of Honeywell and General Mills and Target and all these companies ... However, I’m going to introduce you to us, and these are the policies that allow these companies to do so well here.’”
Hepworth added, “Some people will call that progressive, but [Walz is] calling it freedom, and that’s one of the things he'll probably talk about” in his speech.
“So I don’t know if that’s all progressive, but if it is, it’s something that people should be concerned about,” Hepworth said.
Aaron Dusso, a political science professor at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis, said many of these “progressive” policies are popular among average Americans.
“Tim Walz could be symbolically labeled as a liberal or a progressive, but the policies he has implemented in Minnesota are supported by a majority in polls when they are asked about the specific policy,” Dusso told The Epoch Times.
“[Walz] appears to have been a pragmatic politician who looks to solve problems as they present themselves,” Dusso said, such as providing free lunches to children regardless of economic status.
“He has not presented himself as an ideologue.”
Speaking from a rally stage in Milwaukee on Aug. 20, Walz said, “This campaign has momentum.”
“Can you feel it?” he asked the crowd. “I couldn’t be prouder to be on the ticket and to help make Kamala Harris the next President of the United States. Tomorrow, I‘ll get to give a little speech over in Chicago, [to] formally accept the nomination. On Thursday, Kamala will do the same thing, and she’ll lay out a vision for a new way forward.”
