In a whirlwind quarter-hour address, Walz raced through the story of his middle-class upbringing in small town Nebraska, where he worked on the family farm, and described his experience teaching students who inspired him to go into politics.

Walz, a 60-year-old US Army National Guard veteran and former teacher, was elected to a Republican-leaning district in the US House of Representatives in 2006 and served 12 years before being elected governor of Minnesota in 2018.