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WASHINGTON >> Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’ running mate in the 2024 White House race against Republican Donald Trump, took the stage at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday night in his first high-profile national address.

Harris, 59, tapped Walz, 60, who was little known nationally, to be her vice presidential candidate only 15 days ago. Harris herself only entered the race a month ago, after President Joe Biden quit the Nov. 5 election campaign.

Walz’s jovial manner belies a sharp tongue that he quickly turned on Trump and his running mate, JD Vance. Democrats eager to coalesce behind a candidate they consider more viable than Biden, 81, have donated a record $500 million to the fledgling campaign led by Harris, Biden’s vice president.

Biden’s support for Israel’s assault on Hamas-ruled Gaza, one of the most divisive issues in the party, has not featured prominently at the convention. Health officials say the offensive has killed more than 40,000 people.

The parents of Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, received a standing ovation and chants of “Bring Them Home” when they took the stage. Goldberg-Polin, 23, was among more than 200 hostages taken by Palestinian Hamas militants in their Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

“Bringing the hostages home is not a political issue. It is a humanitarian issue,” Polin said.

American singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder was expected to perform, and a source said Oprah Winfrey, a longtime Democratic donor, was due to make an appearance.

Walz, who has been praised by Democrats for his support of Harris and other women, will talk about growing up on a Nebraska farm, his family and freedoms that Democrats say are under attack from Trump, who is making his third major-party run for the White House.

The convention will show a video featuring former students of Walz when he was a high school teacher and football coach.

Singers John Legend and Sheila E. will perform a tribute to the late music star Prince, who was born in Walz’s home state Minnesota and died in 2016, campaign officials said.

Walz will take the stage on the third night of the party gathering in Chicago after former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and former House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was instrumental in pressuring Biden to drop his struggling reelection bid after a poor debate performance against Trump.

Harris, 59, will address the gathering on its final night on Thursday.

Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy is hoping to cut a deal with Trump whereby he would quit the race in exchange for a job in a new Trump administration, a super PAC supporting Kennedy told Reuters. Kennedy’s endorsement could help Trump in an election that opinion polls show is likely to be close. Trump met with Kennedy last month to discuss a possible endorsement.

Polls showed Biden trailing Trump before the Democratic president ceded the party’s top spot to Harris; polls now show her besting her Republican rival in several of the states that will decide the election.

‘JOYFUL WARRIORS’

Walz’s keynote address follows rousing appearances by Democratic powerhouses including former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle and Hillary Clinton, a former presidential candidate, U.S. senator and secretary of state.

Walz has brought a folksy charm to the campaign trail, describing himself and Harris as “joyful warriors” focused on a brighter future and accusing Republicans of stoking fear and division.

Another video will highlight Walz’s service in the Army National Guard, despite Republican accusations he exaggerated his rank in the Guard where he served for 24 years.

Harris campaign officials are counting on Walz’s Midwestern roots and plain-spoken style to appeal to some of the white men in rural areas who voted for Trump by huge margins in the last two elections – and help deliver battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Walz will be introduced by Ben Ingman, a former student, and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, a fellow Minnesotan who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2020.

At a campaign stop in Asheboro, North Carolina, Trump said Democrats are going to “cheat like hell to win the election,” building on previous comments that suggest he might try to contest the result if he loses, as he did in 2020.

At an event focused on national security, Trump said he would fire all senior military commanders who had been involved in the chaotic 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“This house cleaning will be a signal to the entire world and the American military and everybody else,” he said. Many senior officers who were involved in that operation have already retired.