Ronni ButtsThis late in a presidential race, candidates have had ample time to explain their goals for the nation.
So when Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz visited Durham on Thursday, his speech didn’t offer any new proposals.
Walz joined former President Bill Clinton and N.C. Central University senior Devin Freeman for a rally at the Community Family Life & Recreation Center at Lyon Park, just minutes west of NCCU.
Their remarks were received with cheers and laughter by the hundreds who filled the center’s gymnasium.
Walz promised that Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and he will work for the economic advancement of the middle class, to improve health care and social programs, and address racial disparities and injustices.
“Public safety and civil rights go hand-in-hand,” the Minnesota governor said.
“We see that Tim Walz is someone who spends every day trying to make a difference for the American people,” Freeman said while introducing Walz and Clinton.
Freeman stressed Harris’ work to help HBCU students across the nation, including the Biden-Harris administration’s $17 billion investment into HBCUs.
“She knows HBCUs are important cultural and educational institutions that [drive] innovation, research, and economic mobility,” Freeman said.
“We have their back. They have our back.”
Freeman, who was a North Carolina delegate at the Democratic National Convention in August, has been actively advocating for the Harris-Walz ticket throughout Durham in recent months.
In his speech, Walz promised that the Harris administration will cut taxes for more than 100 million middle-class Americans.
He also stressed his support for funding social programs, noting his family’s reliance on Social Security after his father’s death.
“You don’t start to really think about Medicare or Social Security until you see what it does,” Walz said. “When my mom looks to that Social Security check that’s what she feeds herself with.”
Walz and Clinton both bashed their Republican rivals, former President Donald Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance, and Project 2025, a blueprint for a Republican presidency created by a conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation.
“They know exactly what they’re doing with Project 2025,” Walz said firmly. “[Trump] said no one associated with Project 2025 will be in [his] administration. Every damn one of them were in his administration!”
Walz confidently predicted Trump and Vance will never win the election, stressing the danger of another Trump administration.
“You remember 2016. This is not that Trump. This is something much more deranged,” Walz asserted.
Clinton assured the crowd that if Harris wins the election, her presidency “will be about you.”
“I think Kamala Harris is the only candidate in this race that has the vision, temperament, and, yes, the will to do well on good and bad days,” Clinton said.
The audience included Durham Mayor Leonardo Williams and Durham City Councilwoman Javiera Caballero. Also there were Tim Struttmann and Keith Glidewell, friends and co-chairmen of their Orange County precinct, who said they have been busy encouraging people to vote.
“We are looking at a potential authoritarian taking over our freedoms and taking away everything that we stand for as a democracy,” Struttmann said.
“There’s no choice” between the candidates, Glidewell said. “There’s definitely no choice.”
