Minnesota Governor Tim Walz accepted the US Democratic Party's nomination for vice president in a speech at the party's national convention on Wednesday.

Walz -- whom Vice President Kamala Harris picked as her running mate in her bid to become president -- spoke on the third day of the convention underway in Chicago.

Walz said, "It is the honor of my life to accept your nomination for vice president of the United States."
He said, "We're all here tonight for one beautiful, simple reason -- we love this country."

Walz has been presenting himself as a candidate that voters can relate to with his middle-class upbringing and small-town roots.
The Democratic Party hopes Walz will help Harris win wider support from the white working class.

But Walz was little known to the US public before Harris picked him as her running mate following President Joe Biden's abrupt decision last month not to run for a second term.

Walz hopes the speech at the widely watched convention will help introduce his character and ideas to the wider US public.

Among those who spoke at the convention leading up to Walz's speech was former US President Bill Clinton.

Clinton said, "Kamala Harris is the only candidate in this race who has the vision, the experience, the temperament, the will, and the sheer joy to get something done. We need Kamala Harris, the president of joy, to lead us."