Ever since Vice President Kamala Harris named Tim Walz as her running mate in August, the Minnesota governor has garnered a lot of attention for his image as an affable, Midwestern dad. But other members of his family, including his wife Gwen Walz, have also been put in the national spotlight since his VP nomination.
Though she’s currently Minnesota’s first lady, Gwen could also become second lady of the U.S. if Democrats win the White House on Nov. 5. During a new episode of Next Question, Gwen tells Katie that she’s using her newfound platform on the campaign trail to remind voters that amid this especially polarizing election, we collectively have much more in common than we might think.
“What I still see across this country is that we value the same things,” she says, pointing to key issues like food and housing. “We may not see it the same way, but that’s the dialogue we have to get back to,” she adds. “So I encourage people when they’re door knocking or phone calling or campaigning to tell their stories and let’s work on finding some of those commonalities.”
But her comments come with a major caveat. “I’m not going find common commonalities with what I feel is bullying by some of the things Trump says and does and [what] Mr. Vance says and does,” she continues. “I’m not talking about that kind of behavior. I’m talking about real legitimate conversation and storytelling, even with passionate fire that we might have, but not bullying.”
She also criticized Trump for calling himself the “protector” of women. The former president made these comments during a September rally in Pennsylvania, where he also vowed that they would no longer think about abortion if he won reelection. Gwen called the comments “paternalistic” and “degrading,” even if they were an attempt to reach female voters.
Her comments come amid a historic gender gap in the polls, which could decide whether Vice President Harris or former President Trump wins the closely contest race. According to recent polling from USA Today/Suffolk University, women decisively backed the vice president 53 percent to 36 over her Republican rival. These figures are almost an exact mirror when it comes to men, who support Trump 53 percent to 36 percent over Harris.
Despite this growing divide, Gwen says the Harris campaign is nevertheless continuing a concerted effort to reach male voters, even when it comes to abortion, which she maintains isn’t just a women’s issue. “Democracy is not like a pie, where there are just so many slices and only a few people get a slice,” she says. “That’s not democracy. There is enough for everyone, and there is a place for everyone in this democracy.”
While Gwen is no stranger to the political spotlight, she spent much of her career as an educator, teaching in public schools and prisons. She also served as an administrator and coordinator at Mankato Area Public Schools, a school district in the congressional district her husband represented from 2007 to 2019.
In fact, teaching was how Gwen met her husband. The pair taught at the same Nebraska high school, and their meeting was pretty much love at first sight. After their first date, she said Tim leaned in for a kiss, and when she politely declined, he replied by saying he was going to marry her one day.
It turns out his premonition was right: They’ve been married for 30 years and share two children, 23-year-old Hope and 17-year-old Gus. “We shared a vision of how we saw school and how we saw education,” she says.
Together, the pair have been able to lean on each other as they navigate what could be the most defining elections in decades. But she has no doubt her husband is more than prepared for the White House. “You are getting a teacher, a football coach, a retired military veteran, and an incredibly smart man,” she says. “But what he cares about and what he’s always cared about are people.”
For more, check out the rest of Katie’s interview with Gwen in the video above. In it, she shares what she’s been hearing from voters in battleground states like Michigan as well as the token piece of advice she has gotten from the second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, and First Lady Jill Biden.
