Former President Trump’s campaign and supporters are going after Vice President Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), dubbing him “Tampon Tim” in reference to a bill he signed last year requiring schools to provide free menstrual products in all public school bathrooms.
The Minnesota law, which went into effect Jan. 1, mandates menstrual products — including pads, tampons and other items — “must be available to all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12 according to a plan developed by the school district.”
State Republican lawmakers pushed back on the legislation at the time, but ultimately failed to amend the bill to apply only for girls’ bathrooms.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt called out Walz for the law shortly after Harris announced he would join her on the Democratic presidential ticket.
“As a woman, I think there is no greater threat to our health than leaders who support gender-transition surgeries for young minors, who support putting tampons in men’s bathrooms in public schools,” Leavitt said on Fox News. “Those are radical policies that Tim Walz supports. He actually signed a bill to do that.”
The primary super PAC supporting Trump called Walz a “weird radical liberal,” as part of a new campaign ad against the governor.
“What could be weirder than signing a bill requiring schools to stock tampons in boys’ bathrooms?” the Make America Great Again Inc. account wrote Tuesday on the social platform X. “Or weirder than signing legislation allowing minors to receive sex change operations?”
LBGTQ rights groups celebrated Harris’s decision Tuesday, highlighting his support for equality.
Walz issued an executive order last year establishing the North Star State as a safe haven for transgender minors wishing to obtain gender-affirming health care and a refuge for individuals seeking an abortion, as well as their doctors and their families.
Conservative podcaster Liz Wheeler reposted an edited photo of Walz’s face on a tampon box Tuesday, with the words “Tampon Tim,” writing on X, “He put tampons in men’s bathroom. What a creep.”
Stephen Miller, a former adviser to the former president, also weighed in on the choice of Walz, writing Tuesday on X, “She actually chose Tampon Tim.”
The Hill reached out to the Harris-Walz campaign for comment.