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'Midwestern Dad' Tim Walz soars on social media as VP pick | TribLIVE.com
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Politics Election

'Midwestern Dad' Tim Walz soars on social media as VP pick

Megan Swift
Megan Swift
7610363_web1_7610051-41e702b395724c78bd8d9b3fd4ca6e4c
AP
Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speak at a campaign rally in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Aug. 6.

He’s apparently never read from a teleprompter. Some Republicans bristled at his characterization of them as “weird.” And his Midwestern dad persona is trending.

So, how is the selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as Vice President Kamala Harris‘ newly announced running mate playing on social media?

The memes are plentiful.

Walz spoke for the first time as Harris’ running mate Tuesday in front of a crowd in North Philadelphia. Harris announced on social media just before 10:30 a.m. Tuesday that she had asked Walz to join her on the Democratic ticket.

He was chosen over a short list of Democratic candidates that included Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

Similar to Kamala Harris’ tie to the “brat summer” trend inspired by British pop star Charli XCX’s album “Brat,” social media users on X have been quick to tweet their reactions to Harris’ pick.

Walz and his wife of 30 years, educator Gwen Walz, are parents to 23-year-old Hope and 17-year-old Gus, Vogue reported.

When he and his wife decided to have kids, they spent years going through fertility treatment, Walz said on X.

“I remember praying each night for a call with good news, or the agony when we heard the treatments hadn’t worked,” he said in the post. “When we welcomed our daughter into the world, we named her Hope.”

Other users discussed Walz’ views on election hot topics, such as reproductive rights.

Since the announcement, social media has been flooded with images of Walz emitting what Vogue is calling “Midwestern-dad vibes,” as he was born in West Point, Neb., and has been living in Minnesota since 1996.

WWL anchor Devin Bartolotta’s tweet went viral when she shared how Walz and his congressional staffers pulled her vehicle out of a ditch when she was a 22-year-old reporter in Minnesota.

Walz was the pioneer of calling Republicans and former President Donald Trump “weird,” which has risen in popularity on social media, the Washington Post reported.

“He’s just a strange, weird dude,” Walz said of Trump.

“These guys are just weird,” he has said of some Republicans: “We’re not afraid of weird people. We’re a little bit creeped out, but we’re not afraid.”

Some Republican social media users and Trump supporters have started calling Walz “Tampon Tim,” which is a nod to Walz making menstrual products free and easily accessible in school bathrooms.

A law was passed in Minnesota last year requiring menstural products to be available in bathrooms of all schools for grades 4 through 12 — as a way to accommodate transgender students, the New York Times reported.

Republican lawmakers tried to amend that bill so that it would apply only to “female restrooms,” but it didn’t work, the NYT said. Some Republicans went on to vote for the final version of the bill, according to the Times.

The bill had been in the works for several years, CBS News reported, and through it, schools receive funding from the state that amounts to about $2 per pupil.

Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, said the law was “a threat to women’s health” in a Fox News interview on Tuesday, according to the Times.

“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, the Times reported. “Those are radical policies that Tim Walz supports. He actually signed a bill to do that.”

Megan Swift is a TribLive reporter covering trending news in Western Pennsylvania. A Murrysville native, she joined the Trib full time in 2023 after serving as editor-in-chief of The Daily Collegian at Penn State. She previously worked as a Jim Borden Scholarship intern at the Trib for three summers. She can be reached at mswift@triblive.com.

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