Gender Equality Isn’t Just a Women’s Issue. Tim Walz Knows That.
The vice presidential candidate is a plain-speaking Midwesterner—whose experiences mean he has prioritized policies traditionally classed as “women’s issues”.
In the span of a week, Tim Walz, Kamala Harris's running mate, has gone from a relative unknown (as my editor points out, relative being a relative term, here—Hi FD!) to something of a folk hero. He's the potential vice president much of America didn’t know it needed.
Harris announced the 60-year-old Minnesota governor as her VP pick last week. Within hours, the puzzle pieces about who this guy was were falling into place: This was the man who—following the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Fla.—donated $18,000 of NRA donations he'd received to a charity supporting families of troops killed or injured while serving. His NRA rating (yes, friends outside the U.S., that's a thing) dropped from an A to an F. He was the governor who dedicated a highway to the artist (formerly known as) Prince, signing the bill in purple ink. And yes, he was the person behind the word “weird” lobbed at the Trump/Vance ticket during a Morning Joe interview, which got the attention of Gen Z voters—and stuck.
Supporters have also praised Walz’s push for tighter gun laws, spurred on by his daughter, as well as his decision to go tee-total after being slapped with a DUI almost 30 years ago.
But there are other important things to know about Walz, too. Because, yes, while it’s true that Walz may be a plain-speaking, gun-toting, former high-school teacher from the Midwest who looks preternaturally comfortable in a camo cap, he’s also a capital F, feminist.
Last year, the governor signed into law a bill mandating that free menstruation products be placed in all school restrooms used by students grades 4 through 12 in the state of Minnesota. Republicans nicknamed him “Tampon Tim.” His supporters ran with it.
In his 2023 State of the State address, he vowed to make Minnesota “the best state to have a family” by signing a state paid parental leave program into law and expanding the Child Tax Credit. The paid leave program, which will be implemented in 2026, is one of the most comprehensive in the U.S.
Walz has also been a champion of reproductive rights, enshrining the right to abortion at any point in a pregnancy into state law, and enacting a so-called “shield law,” aimed at protecting those seeking an abortion. He has been outspoken on IVF, tweeting on July 25—World IVF Day—about his “agony when we heard that treatments hadn’t worked.” By doing so, he acknowledged something that often goes unspoken—that infertility is not just a women’s issue; it’s an everyone issue. Indeed, it's true of all these issues.
When an everyman starts wading into everyone territory, that changes things. Suddenly we might find ourselves talking more openly about things like menstrual products (gasp!) or about the pain of IVF, because we can. (Compare this to efforts in Florida to ban discussion of menstruation among students below sixth grade.)
But this has always been Walz’s train. He has supported gay rights since his early days as a teacher in the 1990s, and he's designated his state of Minnesota a refuge for trans individuals. Parental leave and child care are signature issues for him—pushed front and center, not just relegated to the sidelines.
So if you thought you could tell what Walz stands for just by looking at him, perhaps think again. What we've gleaned so far, is that he seems to break just about every rigid rule around what is a man’s domain and what isn't, proving as he does so, that no, boys won’t always be boys.
How refreshing.
Holly Baxter
Francesca Donner
Emma Haslett
