Who is Tim Walz’s wife? Everything about Gwen Walz

Vice President and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris has chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate.

Walz, 60, first appeared with Harris at a rally in Philadelphia on August 6, when Harris announced he would join her on the ticket. Tim Walz was joined on stage for the announcement by his wife, Gwen Walz.

Gwen and Tim Walz have been married for thirty years and share two children, Gus and Hope.

Read on to learn more about Gwen Walz, born Gwen Whipple.

She is a lifelong Minnesotan

Gwen Walz was born in Glencoe, Minnesota, and grew up with three sisters in the western part of the state.

Walz earned degrees from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter and Minnesota State University, according to her biography on the Minnesota governor’s official website.

She and Tim Walz met when they were both teachers

Gwen and Tim Walz met while teaching at the same school in Nebraska.

Gwen Walz told the story of their first date in a 2019 Minnesota Star Tribune interview, recalling that they went to see the Michael Douglas movie “Falling Down,” followed by a trip to Hardee’s.

Walz says that when her now husband leaned in for a kiss, she said no, and he replied, “That’s fine, but you need to know that I’m going to marry you.”

They married in 1994 and two years later moved back to Minnesota, where they both worked as teachers.

“It’s true: the best thing that happened to me was meeting and marrying Gwen. Without a doubt I exceeded my coverage (to use a football term)!” That’s what Tim Walz said in a 2018 biography when he was running for governor in Minnesota, according to KROC News.

Gwen Walz went on to teach at “public alternative and migrant schools,” experiences that “shaped her vision,” according to her official biography.

She also served as an administrator and coordinator for the Mankato, Minnesota Public School District for over twenty years.

In June 2022, Tim Walz shared a photo of him and his wife on the occasion of their anniversary.

“Today, Gwen and I celebrate our wedding anniversary! In 1994, on this day, we were surrounded by our family and dear friends,” he wrote in the caption. “Today we remain very grateful to them and each other!”

Today the couple lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Walz has her own policy initiatives

According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, Walz was the first Minnesota first lady to have her own office in the Capitol.

After Tim Walz was elected governor, she launched her own policy initiatives focused on education and corrections reform.

Although she is one of her husband’s closest advisors, Walz has said she appreciates her and her husband’s different roles, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.

“Tim is the governor and makes the governor’s decisions,” she said. “We have a lot to do and everyone has a role and a share in it. It is my responsibility to find my way forward in this new role, with respect and awareness.”

She has opened up about her mother’s inspiring story

Shortly after becoming first lady, Walz also became special assistant to the president for strategic partnerships at Augsburg University in Minneapolis.

It was an especially meaningful role for her because her mother, Linnea Whipple, went to Augsburg after becoming the first person in her family to graduate from high school.

“They saw her potential, and they didn’t restrict my mother at a time when women had a lot of restrictions,” Walz told the university publication Augsburg Now in 2023.

“One of the most important indicators of children’s future educational attainment is the educational attainment of their mothers,” Walz also said.

“My mother went to country school at the age of four because her brother wouldn’t go to school without her, and she graduated from high school at the age of 17,” she continued. “I am grateful that she had the drive to leave her family life behind and that Augsburg – through its faith and alumni connections – found my mother in her small town of 600.”

She has advocated for education in prisons across the country

Walz’s passion for education led her to her involvement in the prison system, and she has worked to connect incarcerated people with educational opportunities.

Her governor’s office biography states her belief that “corrections must be an inclusive part of our education system, and by expanding opportunity, our state can dramatically reduce recidivism rates and, most importantly, transform lives.”

Walz has worked to support the Bard Prison Initiative, a New York-based program that allows inmates to earn associate’s and bachelor’s degrees, and she has strived to bring elements of this model to Minnesota and across the country.

“I think it’s a critical conversation to have,” Walz told MPR News in Minnesota in 2019. “I’m convinced that people are looking for ways to address all kinds of different issues within corrections and within criminal justice.”

She and Tim Walz share two children

Tim and Gwen Walz share two children, Hope, 23, and Gus, 17.

“My kids don’t think I’m cool,” Gwen Walz joked to the Minnesota Star Tribune in 2019.

Tim Walz has previously opened up about the couple’s journey with fertility treatments.

In a March interview with the Minnesota Star Tribune, he said he and his wife had undergone fertility treatments at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for seven years before welcoming their first child.

“I said, ‘Not again,’” Walz said, recalling a time when his wife called him crying. “She said, ‘No, I’m pregnant.’ It is no coincidence that we named our daughter Hope.”

In August, Gwen Walz revealed that she had undergone intrauterine insemination (IUI). IUI “increases the chance of pregnancy by placing specially prepared sperm directly into the uterus,” according to the Mayo Clinic.

“Like millions of families across the country, Tim and I have tried for years to start a family through fertility treatments. We followed the journey of infertility – the fear, pain and despair that can eat away at your soul,” Gwen Walz said in a statement to NBC News. “Knowing that pain, I cannot fathom the cruelty of politicians who want to deprive couples of the freedom to access the care they need. After seeing the extreme attacks on reproductive health care across the country—particularly the efforts in Alabama that threatened access to fertility treatments—Tim and I agreed it was time to formally speak about our experiences. Our experience has taught us that there is always hope and we hope other families find comfort in our story. Since then, I have been deeply touched by the women who shared their stories with me.”

She added that their fertility journey was “an incredibly personal and difficult experience.”

“Like many who have experienced these challenges, we kept it largely to ourselves at the time – we didn’t even share the details with our wonderful and close-knit family,” she continued, noting that the only person who “knew in detail what we were going to do’ through was our neighbor.”

“She was a nurse and helped me with the injections I needed as part of the IUI process. I rushed home from school and she gave me the shots to make sure we stayed on track. Many of our closest family and friends were surprised when we shared these experiences so many years later,” she concludes.

During his speech on day three of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 21, Tim Walz spoke about the struggle he and his wife faced starting a family.

Tim Walz called the experience of infertility “hell” and recalled praying every night “for a phone call, the pit in your stomach when the phone rang, and the absolute agony when we heard that the treatments hadn’t worked.”

He added: “It took Gwen and I years, but we were able to access fertility treatments. And when our daughter was born, we named her Hope. Hope, Gus and Gwen, you are my whole world. And I love you.”

He added in part, as his family appeared emotional in the stands, “I’m telling you how we started a family because that’s a big part of what this election is about: freedom.”

She has supported Tim Walz at political events

When he was elected governor in 2018, Tim Walz thanked his wife in a Facebook post and shared a photo of him extending his hand to her from a podium.

“To my wife Gwen – the next first lady of Minnesota – how can I ever thank you enough? I’m grateful to you for holding it all together for us and walking with me on this journey. I love you,” he wrote in the caption.

She appeared alongside her husband during his gubernatorial campaign. He was re-elected governor in 2022.

In an interview last year with Augsburg Now, Gwen Walz shared the story of how she supported her husband four days before his election, when they made campaign stops on a bus to thank people who had supported their campaign.

“I did not have a speaking role at these stops, but I wanted to convey my personal gratitude and honor their time and hard work,” she said. “I rolled up my sleeves and called all my volleyball moms and friends over to the house, and we baked 1,400 gingersnaps using my grandmother’s recipe and wrapped them with a note from me. Small gestures are important, and I like to share a piece of myself with others.

Gwen Walz also supported her husband at the DNC. During former President Barack Obama’s speech on August 20, she was seen laughing hysterically as Obama joked about Tim Walz’s Midwestern-coded wardrobe.

“You can tell that the flannel shirts he’s wearing don’t come from some political consultant, they come from his closet and they’ve been through some stuff,” Obama joked.

“You’re right!” Gwen Walz cheered from the audience.

Later, Gwen Walz shared a photo of her husband apparently sewing a button back onto one of his washcloths.

“It’s so true, @BarackObama. Tim loves his washcloths,” she captioned the post.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com