Politics
Gabbi Shaw and Talia Lakritz
- Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota is Kamala Harris' running mate in the 2024 election.
- Walz has been married for 30 years and has two children.
- He's also one of four siblings — all grew up to be teachers.
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Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota —who you may recognize from the many viral videos of him describing the Republican vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, as "weird" — was announced on Tuesday as Kamala Harris' running mate for the 2024 election.
The reveal came after two weeks of speculation and ahead of the Democratic National Convention, which kicks off on August 19.
If Harris and Walz beat former President Donald Trump and Vance to the White House, Walz and his wife would become the newest residents of the VP's official home, Number One Observatory Circle, where Harris currently lives.
Here's what you need to know about Walz's wife, Gwen, their two kids, Hope and Gus, and their rescue pets, Scout and Honey.
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Tim Walz has been governor since 2019. He previously served in the House of Representatives and worked as a high-school teacher.
Before Walz ran for Congress, where he served from 2007 to 2019, he was a high-school geography teacher and football coach at Mankato West High School from 1996 to 2006. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that he also served as the faculty advisor for his school's Gay-Straight Alliance.
Walz also served in the National Guard for 24 years. He enlisted in 1981 and retired as a master sergeant in 2005.
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Walz is one of four siblings. His brother Craig died during a storm in 2016.
Walz's brother Craig died in 2016 when, during a storm, a tree fell where he was camping in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area at Duncan Lake in Minnesota, as reported by WCCO and KARE11. Craig's son, Jacob, who was then 8 years old, was severely injured but recovered from his injuries.
Craig, like Walz's two other siblings, Jeff and Sandy, was a teacher.
"My mom raised four teachers, and three out of four of us married teachers. Working in the family business for 20+ years, I learned just how much hard work goes into the job," Tim Walz wrote on Facebook in May.
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Walz met his wife, Gwen, when the two were teachers at the same school in Nebraska.
After graduating from Chadron State College, Walz worked in China for a year with WorldTeach, a nonprofit organization that places volunteers around the world to teach English and other subjects.
Upon his return, he began teaching in Nebraska, his home state, where he met Gwen.
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They married in 1994 and moved to Minnesota, Gwen's home state, two years later.
According to her official bio, Gwen is a "lifelong Minnesotan." She attended Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter and Minnesota State University in Mankato before she began teaching English in Nebraska, where she met her future husband.
Soon after they met, the two started hosting summer trips for students to travel to China, a project that continued until 2003.
In addition to education, Gwen is also passionate about prison reform and education inside prisons.
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They have two children: Hope and Gus.
Walz frequently posts on social media about his kids.
Gwen joined Instagram the same day her husband was announced as Harris' running mate, and she has since posted just one photo: a shot of her husband and their kids.
The Walz family also has a rescue dog, Scout, and a rescue cat, Honey.
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Walz has been open about how he and his wife used IVF to conceive their children after seven years of fertility treatments.
In a March 2024 interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Walz publicly shared his journey with in vitro fertilization after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that frozen embryos were considered people, which threatened access to fertility treatments in the state.
He said they went through seven years of fertility treatments at the Mayo Clinic before Gwen told her husband she was pregnant with their daughter, Hope.
"Gwen and I have two beautiful children because of reproductive healthcare like IVF. This issue is deeply personal to our family and so many others," he wrote on Facebook.
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Hope is 23 years old. She attended the University of Minnesota.
"It's not by chance that we named our daughter Hope," Walz told the Star Tribune, referencing the yearslong fertility struggles he and his wife went through.
In September 2023, Walz posted on Instagram to celebrate National Daughter's Day. "I have the best daughter a dad could possibly ask for. Happy National Daughter's Day," he wrote.
Newsweek reported that Hope attended the University of Minnesota.
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Gus, born in 2006, is 17 years old.
Walz also posts about his son, who turns 18 in October. Last October, he posted in celebration of Gus passing his road test to get his driver's license.
"My son Gus just passed his (what do you call it? A drivers license exam?). Proud dad moment," he wrote.
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