Minnesota’s Gwen Walz makes her mark on the Democrats’ national campaign

Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz is making her mark on her husband’s first national campaign as she prepares to introduce Gov. Tim Walz (D) at the Democratic National Convention.

Walz will narrate a video introducing her husband at the convention Wednesday, according to a Harris-Walz campaign official. She has been on hand for all the convention’s major speeches and enthusiastically played along with former President Obama’s joke about her husband’s flannel shirt collection, writing on social platform X that “Tim loves his flannels.” 

But as Vice President Harris’s campaign elevates the Walz duo into the national spotlight, they are receiving increased scrutiny. Earlier this week, the Harris-Walz campaign was forced to clarify the type of fertility procedure the Walzes underwent, which prompted criticism from Republicans.

“This is a chance for them to introduce both of themselves and let the public have some insight into their story from a personal perspective,” said Debbie Walsh, the director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. “That’s the job in many ways that Gwen Walz will be doing tonight.”

The Walzes are largely unknown to the broader American public. An AP-NORC poll released earlier this week found that 4 in 10 Americans said they don’t know enough about Tim Walz to have an opinion of him. 

“Their job in many ways at these conventions is to give the human side of the candidate, and I think particularly for Tim Walz it’s so interesting because he comes across as so human,” Walsh said. 

Like her husband, Gwen Walz worked as a teacher. Prior to becoming Minnesota’s first lady, Gwen Walz was an English teacher and a former administrator in Mankato Area Public Schools. She’s made education a key part of her platform as the state’s first lady, advocating for education access in prisons. 

Democrats in the North Star State have been excited to see Gwen Walz elevated into the national spotlight as a part of the party’s presidential ticket. 

Minnesota state Assistant Senate Majority Leader Nick Frentz (D) called her rise “a continuation of Democrats realizing that lifting up women as leaders pays dividends for everybody.”

“I think for Gwen Walz, she’s been recognized as a star, as a teacher, as an assessment coordinator, as a wife, as a mother. For those of us from Mankato, North Mankato, this is no big secret,” he said. “And we’re happy to see the nation figure it out. She’s sensational.”

Christine DeVries, a Minnesota alternate delegate, said it wasn’t “a huge surprise” to see Gwen Walz making it onto the national spotlight. 

“We were with Gwen and Tim at a fundraiser a couple of years ago, and she spoke, and the governor did, too,” DeVries said. “But we were all saying, ‘Wow, she could be governor.’”

While their careers as educators are a major part of the Walz brand, the couple have been candid about their struggles with fertility. Tim Walz previously appeared to suggest that he and his wife underwent in vitro fertilization (IVF), though the Harris-Walz campaign and Gwen Walz clarified that they opted for intrauterine insemination. 

“Governor Walz talks how normal people talk,” Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg explained in a statement regarding the prior comments. “He was using commonly understood shorthand for fertility treatments.”

Gwen Walz shared details of her personal story in an interview with Glamour magazine published earlier this week.

“Many of our closest family and friends were surprised when we shared these experiences so many years later,” Gwen Walz told the magazine. 

She called her fertility journey “an incredibly personal and difficult experience.”

The clarification led to attacks from Republicans, notably GOP vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (Ohio), who accused Walz of lying “about having a family via IVF.” 

Ehrenberg said in a statement that the attacks waged by the Trump campaign over Gwen Walz “are just another example of how cruel and out of touch Donald Trump and JD Vance are when it comes to women’s healthcare.”

“Infertility is a deeply personal journey, but the Governor and Mrs. Walz came forward to share their story because they know that MAGA attacks on reproductive rights are putting all fertility treatments at risk,” she added.

The attacks have also angered supporters of the couple, like Minnesota delegate Lori Sellner, who said critics should mind their “own damn business.” 

“How dare anyone question a couple’s journey of having children,” said Jeanne Massey, who was at the Minnesota delegation breakfast Wednesday but is not an official delegate. 

“Like, that is so incredibly insulting,” said Massey, who became teary-eyed at one point. “They did everything they could because they wanted to bring children into this world, and I’m so glad that they succeeded in that journey.”

Brian Melendez, a former chair for the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, had more choice words for Vance and his attacks on Tim Walz regarding his portrayal of his military service and how he described his family’s fertility journey.

“I think Tim Walz knows about his military service, and I think Tim Walz knows about how his child was born,” Melendez said. “And people who don’t know about that should just shut up.”

The nation is also quickly getting to know Gwen Walz through X, where her reactions to speakers including Obama and Hillary Clinton have gone viral. After Obama made his quip about the governor’s flannels, the Minnesota first lady could be seen clapping and raising her hands together in the air.

While first lady Jill Biden spoke Monday night, Gwen Walz raised a green sign with the word “Jill” in block letters. 

Supporters said voters should expect the Minnesota governor and first lady to share more about their own family life in an effort to present a relatable family unit. 

Following Harris’s decision to tap the governor as her running mate, Gwen Walz posted an Instagram selfie of their family with the caption: “Walzes assemble! Off to Philly!” 

Sellner, the delegate from Minnesota, recalled how both Walzes made an effort to invite all the kids from their daughter’s class for her birthday party when she was in elementary school. 

“I remember talking to Gwen about it, about how I usually don’t see that, it’s usually just a few friends,” Sellner said. “She said ‘yeah, we just want to make sure everyone is included in things and that’s always just stuck with me as long as I’ve known them.” 

“I knew them then and now as people who just wanted to have everyone at the table.”