Vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz steps over the state line from his Minnesota home to Superior, Wisconsin, on Saturday — joined by his wife, Gwen — to cap off a three-day touring blitz of Midwestern battleground states.

"These days are precious. This is a Saturday in northern Wisconsin — and it’s nice outside. These are rare and they’re precious. But it speaks volumes about you," Walz, the governor of Minnesota, said. "You came here for this moment because of what Kamala Harris always says, a beautiful simple reason: You love this country."

What You Need To Know

  • Vice presidential hopeful Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz ended a post-debate rally blitz in Superior, Wisconsin, on Saturday

  • Walz urged supporters to get out and talk with friends, family and neighbors to talk about the policies of their preferred candidates — and ask just what Trump policies they might actually like

  • The Minnesota governor knocked Trump's debate performance for a lack of substance and for dodging questions on health care, abortion rights and accepting election losses

Walz's speech had the flavor of a pep rally, as he boasted about his campaign partner, running down her history of personal accomplishments before commending her work in Tuesday’s presidential debate between Democratic candidate Vice President Harris and GOP candidate and former President Donald Trump.

"She had the upper hand in that thing — no pun intended — from the handshake," Walz said. "What you saw is what we all knew: Donald Trump is exactly what we knew him to be. His true colors were on display — not his makeup — but his character…obsessed with the past and rooting against the American people, rooting against this country."

Trump, he said, dodged simple questions: He refused to say he wanted Ukraine to win its war against Russia. He refused to say if he would veto a national abortion ban. ("You know why! He doesn’t trust women, and they sure the hell don’t trust him," Walz said.) And Trump, he noted, refused — and continues to refuse — to say he lost the 2020 election.

"He also had nothing to say what he would do to make your lives better," Walz said, calling back to Trump’s response that he has "concepts of a plan" to replace the Affordable Care Act.

"If I got that excuse from one of my students, I would have laughed them out of the room," Walz said. "Let’s just be honest: He doesn’t know what’s in the ACA, he’s never read it. He’s never looked at it. He doesn’t know — not once has he ever worried that he would have to pay a medical bill."

At the core of Walz’s speech is the idea that Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, don’t understand the potholes and pitfalls that everyday Americans bump into and avoid every day. He and Harris, he said, are of the middle class and know what it takes to help one another.

"People see the world from where they stand. If you stand in a middle class living room, if you stand if you stand in a union factory job, if you stand in scrubs as a nurse, helping, that’s a way to see the world," Walz said. "If you stand, or more likely set, in Mar-a-Lago, or in a venture capitalist high rise on Wall Street, why would you care if your Social Security check shows up? You don’t care about it , because you don’t need it … you know who needs it? My mom. She pays for heat, she pays for food with her social security check, and it’s the best anti-poverty program ever devised in this country."

Most important to Walz was the call to action, urging supporters to talk to friends, neighbors and family members who tend toward Trump and his proposals, if not the man himself, to ask a tough question: What policies?

"Which ones? Taking your health care, forcing women to bleed out in parking lots becaue they can't get health care? Tax cuts for billionaires? If you're a billionaire and tha'tsl you carea bout, he may be your guy — but if you're a working class person, a middle class person, a community member, I can't find much there," Walz said. "The things we're talking about in this room" — including strong health care, good schools, strong infrastructure, the right to your own body — "will help folks who are buying those flags, those red hats and believing that Donald Trump's with them," he said.

Gwen Walz’s speech tapped into a bit of their joint teacherly background as she helped introduce her husband to the 1,200 person audience. With a wave of her hand, she led the crowd to practice sweeping their hands from left to right in an an arc, a cue from Kamala Harris’ debate line that urged voters to "turn the page" on Trump’s brand of politics.

"And you know what else that looks like?" she asked, repeating the gesture one more time, but with her hand now wide open in a wave. "Bye bye, Donald Trump. We are turning the page on you in 52 days."