What to know about Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz

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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz burst onto the national scene as the subject of supporters’ folksy memes and Republicans’ ill-fated attacks after Vice President Harris picked him as her running mate.

In contrast, Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz keeps a lower online profile — in fact, she only joined X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram in August, and follows just three accounts on each platform: her husband, Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff.

But the lifelong Minnesotan has made her mark on the state in many ways, including by supporting Walz’s agenda and championing her own key issues like education and criminal justice reform.

"I can't wait for all of you, and America, to get to know my incredible wife, Gwen, a 29-year public school educator," Walz said onstage at his first campaign rally on Tuesday (which Gwen also attended, wearing a cardigan and ponytail combo that earned her many online admirers). "Don't ever underestimate teachers."

Here’s what to know about Gwen Walz.

Gwen and Tim met as teachers in Nebraska

Gwen Walz was born Gwen Whipple in Glencoe, Minn., and grew up in the western part of the state, according to her official biography. She and her three sisters were raised by their parents, who were educators and small business owners.

Walz earned degrees from Gustavus Adolphus College — a Lutheran-affiliated liberal arts school in St. Peter — and Minnesota State University in Mankato.

She then moved to Nebraska to teach high school English, where she met her now-husband, who taught social studies at the time.

“Tim and I even shared a classroom with just a divider right down the middle when we were teaching in Nebraska,” Walz told MPR News in 2019.

According to the Star Tribune, she “could hear how engaged his students were” and “became smitten.” On their first date, they saw the thriller Falling Down and ate at a Hardee’s, and Tim decided he would marry her.

They tied the knot in 1994.

Around this time, the couple founded a company that organized annual summer trips to China for their students (through 2003). One of those visits doubled as their honeymoon.

Two years later, the Walzes moved to Mankato, Minn., where they once again worked at the same high school. In addition to teaching, Tim coached football and Gwen coached the cheer team.

Gwen Walz served as an administrator and coordinator in the Mankato Area Public Schools for over two decades, “working to eliminate the achievement gap,” per her biography. She taught in public, alternative and migrant schools along the way.

“I think how both Tim and I think about our perspective there is that we are learners, we are lifelong learners,” she told MPR News. “And the more you teach, the more you know you have a lot to learn — both about students and subject matters.”

Expanding education in prisons is one of her key priorities

Walz, 58, is a vocal advocate for bringing educational opportunities to incarcerated people — “or as Gwen notes: students,” her bio reads.

“Gwen understands that corrections must be an inclusive component of our education system, and by expanding opportunity, our state can dramatically reduce recidivism rates and most importantly, transform lives,” it adds.

She has worked for years with the Bard Prison Initiative, a program of New York’s Bard College that brings liberal arts education to prisons and has spread to other institutions.

She told MPR News that a key element of the program is that it holds students to a high standard, saying former President George W. Bush’s phrasing of “the soft bigotry of low expectations” had long resonated with her.

After her husband was elected governor in 2018, Walz became the first first lady in Minnesota to have an office at the state Capitol, right down the hall from him.

She told MPR News that the two of them had collaborated closely during the 12 years that the then-congressman was working largely out of D.C., though she said she often operated behind the scenes. She said they were thrilled to be able to work out of the same space again, more or less.

“Tim said, ‘Well maybe you want to just, like, have a desk here and come and go out of my office?’ ” Walz recalled. “And I said, ‘Oh no, you talk way too much, we have to be able to get some work done here,’ and he completely agreed.”

During her tenure as first lady, Walz has also spoken at rallies in favor of restoring voting rights for formerly incarcerated felons (which the state did in 2023) and passing gun control legislation mandating universal background checks.

“Having worked with students for many, many years, I feel there are some issues where I can take a lead and I can make my voice known,” she said in 2019.

The couple are parents to two kids and two pets

The Walzes are parents to Hope and Gus, who were born in 2001 and 2006.

Tim Walz has spoken publicly on and off the campaign trail about his family’s experience with IVF — an emerging front in the political fight over reproductive rights — during Gwen’s seven years of fertility treatment at Minnesota’s Mayo Clinic.

“It wasn’t by chance that when we welcomed our daughter into the world, we named her Hope,” he said at the campaign’s first rally, in Philadelphia.

The Walz family lived in Mankato before moving into the governor’s residence in St. Paul in 2019. MPR reports that Tim and Gwen left handwritten notes — and a bottle of wine and gift card to a local bagel shop — for the new owners.

“We came to this house as a young recently wed couple. This home welcomed our children from their birth,” Tim wrote. “Our dreams were born here, and this house has served us well.”

The family has also adopted several rescue animals over the years. In 2019, they brought home a black Lab mix named Scout, making good on their promise to Gus that they would get a dog if Walz won the election. They also adopted a cat named Honey in December 2023.