DNC 2024 Day 3: Tim Walz tells Democrats to 'leave it on the field'

Amanda Gorman, who gained national fame after reciting her poem "The Hill We Climb" at the Biden-Harris inauguration in 2021, read a new poem at the DNC that stressed unity.

She said everyone is there because "we believe in the American dream" but that is being tested.

"It falls to us to ensure that we do not fall, for a people that cannot stand together, cannot stand at all," she said.

"We are one family, regardless of religion, class, or color, for what defines a patriot is not just our love of liberty, but our love for one another," she continued.

"This is loud in our country's call because while we all love freedom, it is love that frees us all," she said to applause.

She ended her poem with, "Let us not just believe in the American dream, let us be worthy of it."

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro continued with the Democrats' message of freedom contending that they were the party of "real freedom" -- to the cheers of the crowd.

"Kamala's and Tim's names may be on the ballot, but it's your rights, it's our rights and our future and our freedoms on the line," he said.

Shapiro drew the line from the Revolutionary War to the Civil Rights movement as examples of how the country has come together to keep those freedoms, prompting chants of "USA" from the crowd.

"E pluribus unum -- out of many, one -- is not merely a motto from the past, but a direction for our future," he said.

Shapiro was on the short list for Harris' vice presidential picks before she selected Walz.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is addressing the DNC after appearing to play a significant role in Biden's exit from the top of the Democratic ticket.

Pelosi, who last month endorsed Harris to be the party's nominee for president, did not publicly call on Biden to withdraw from the race. Instead, Pelosi, in a July 10 interview, declined to directly answer when asked if Biden had her support in his reelection bid after his ruinous debate performance.

At the time, Biden had already committed to running for reelection, writing in a statement congressional Democrats days earlier that he was "firmly committed" to staying in the race.

Her comments blunted any progress Biden was trying to make persuading congressional Democrats that he was up for the job. And Pelosi's ambiguous public comments instead created space for rank-and-file Democrats to pressure the president to drop out.

Speakers at the DNC have mentioned the word "joy" more than two dozen times tonight.

The most recent reference came from Bill Clinton.

"Like Hakeem Jeffries, I too want an America that's more joyful, more inclusive, more future focused," he said. "Just think what a burden that's been on us to get up day after day after day after day, buried in meaningless hot rhetoric, when there's so many opportunities out there, so many problems that need to be solved."