Walz campaigns in Savannah, urging Georgians to turn out for Harris before early voting ends Friday

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A supporter holds a sign referring to Walz's teenage son Gus, who was brought to tears during an emotional moment in his father's speech at the Democratic National Convention in August.

Credit: Benjamin Payne / GPB News

Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz held a get-out-the-early-vote rally in Savannah on Tuesday, urging Georgians to cast their ballots for Vice President Kamala Harris by the last day of early voting on Friday.

Walz spoke before a capacity crowd of about 300 people at the reception venue Victory North, exactly one week before Election Day in what polls have consistently shown will be a tight race in Georgia and other battleground states between Harris and former President Donald Trump.

“You know what the antidote is to the anxiety you're feeling? Go out and vote for Kamala Harris,” Walz said. “Get that cousin to the poll. Get that person who says, ‘I'm just really not into politics.’ Too damn bad. Politics is into you, so go get it done.”

Seeking to win over moderate Republicans and undecided voters, Walz said, “Let's just acknowledge the Republican Party over the years contributed much to this country and the parties that kept their word,” Walz said. “When those old Republicans talked about freedom, they meant it. That's not who this guy is,” he said, referring to Trump.

“When this guy talks about freedom? Freedom to have government in your doctor's office, in your school library, in your bedroom,” Walz said. “Golden rule up north, as I'm sure it is down south: things work better if you just mind your own damn business about my bedroom.”

Walz sought to hold Trump accountable for what Walz and Harris have called “Trump abortion bans” — including in Georgia, where abortion is banned at around six weeks of pregnancy — that took effect as a result of the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

All three justices who Trump nominated to the Supreme Court voted to overturn the 1973 precedent, which had granted a constitutional right to abortion access.

“Now, young women in this room, you've got less rights than your moms,” Walz said, before bringing up Amber Thurman, who was one of at least two Georgia women who died as a result of Georgia's abortion law, according to reporting by ProPublica.

“Her death was found to be preventable when she couldn't get the care she needed here,” Walz said. “As a parent, as an American, as a human being, that makes me sick as hell that that would happen. We're hearing these stories all across the country. Women are turned away from emergency rooms, having miscarriages in parking lots, survivors of rape and incest being forced to carry those pregnancy to term.”

Walz said that reproductive rights would be further eroded by a second Trump administration, including for couples that are trying to conceive.

“For Gwen and I, we struggled for years to have kids,” he said, referring to his wife. “We used fertility treatments. We finally had that beautiful daughter. And I have to tell you: I will be damned if I'll allow any politician, let alone Donald Trump, make that decision for your family.”

Walz also attacked Trump's economic agenda, which calls for raising tariffs on imported goods, leading to what Walz and Harris have dubbed a de facto “national sales tax” on U.S. households through higher prices.

“China's not paying for them,” Walz said of tariffs. “You're paying for them. $4,000 a year — $4,000 a year out of your pocket. You would think after nearly 80 years, he would have learned what a tariff is.”

Tax cuts under Trump, Walz said, would be only granted to “the richest amongst us,” Walz said, while Harris wants “to give tax cuts to 100 million middle class Americans — the folks who are working. This one is transformational. We did it in Minnesota. We did it during the pandemic. $6,000 child tax credit in the first year of that child's life matters.”

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Walz greets a supporter after his campaign rally in Savannah.

Credit: Benjamin Payne / GPB News

Savannah resident Karen Stark, a Minnesota native who moved to the city earlier this year from Pennsylvania, said that Walz's message on tackling price-gouging resonated with her.

“The grocery manufacturing, in my opinion, has a lot of hold on our food prices,” she said. “The middleman is the one that's getting rich. A lot of people don't understand that farmers always pay retail for inputs, but are expected to go wholesale for their products.”

Stark said that she was glad to hear Walz discuss not only higher prices paid by grocery shoppers, but also higher costs faced by farmers.

“Especially coming from an agricultural state like Minnesota, I'm thinking that he's going to bring that more to the forefront and I think that our American farmers are going to start understanding that a little bit better, and how the Trump administration really hasn't done anything for them,” she said.

After campaigning in Savannah, Walz traveled to West Georgia for a rally in Columbus.

Georgia voters on Tuesday surpassed the 3 million mark for early in-person ballots cast. About another 200,000 mail-in ballots have been received.