As Gov. Tim Walz introduces himself to the nation, his daughter Hope helps him relate
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Hope Walz had a job to do: film a PSA with her dad, Gov. Tim Walz, as Minnesota enacted hands free driving.
This was 2019 and Hope Walz, sitting in the driver’s seat of a car, joked with her dad about just who was doing the texting and driving.
“We want to make sure our teen drivers are not texting —” Tim Walz started.
“No, no, no,” Hope Walz interjected. “I think it’s actually a mostly bald men.”
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“Cut!” the governor called.
The video is just one of the snapshots into the relationship between Hope and Gov. Walz that has resurfaced in the form of viral videos. Another shows the two at the Minnesota State Fair in 2023.
The two had an agreement: Dad picks something old to do and Hope picks something new. Her choice? The slingshot, an extreme ride that bungees riders in an open sphere into the air and back down over and over.
Then, he said, it would be time to eat. The governor called for corndogs.
“I’m vegetarian,” Hope reminded him.
“Turkey then,” Walz quipped.
The videos with his daughter are a new political dynamic that has rarely been seen on campaign trail, according to historian Kate Anderson Brower.
“I think that’s what makes it unique is her comfort level and the fact that she does seem really charismatic and the fact that they can use her in a way to tell their story,” Brower explained.
Now that Governor Walz has joined Harris on the ticket — Hope is on the campaign trail, even sporting a Harris-Walz camouflage hat that nods to the Midwest and pop culture.
Brower points to other first and second children who have gotten involved in politics over the years. But it’s still very common for families to stay private.
Even Harris’s two adult step-children, Ella and Cole Emhoff, have largely stayed out of the political spotlight during her time as vice president.
Now, both do have a role at the convention. On Tuesday night, Cole honored his dad and Harris in a video.
Gov. Walz, though, enters the national spotlight with a family that is used to being a part of his political messaging.
Like when Walz tells the story of how he and his wife struggled to start a family, undergoing years of fertility treatments.
Finally, they were able to have their first child, Hope. At one Arizona rally, the crowd started chanting “Hope, Hope, Hope” as the woman herself looked on.
“I’m not crying, you’re crying,” an emotional Tim Walz said.
Historian Brower saw that moment as particularly striking.
“We haven’t seen that sort of level of intimacy between a candidate and their child so early on in an election cycle,” she said.
“I think part of that is there’s kind of a sense now in this race that they’ve got to move things along fast because it changed very late in the game. I don’t think they're going to waste any time to try to get people to know who Tim Walz is,” Brower added.
Longtime Republican strategist Kevin Madden worked on Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. Romney’s large family joined the campaign trail and Madden viewed that as an asset.
“When you see a candidate with their family and you see a candidate that is close to their family, traveling with their family, it helps folks identify with that candidate more easily,” Madden said. “That does, oftentimes, give you another opportunity to then make an appeal on issues, on policy.”
Hope may have another strength here, appealing to young voters, a group Harris and Walz need to win.
And her dad is open to hearing from the generation.
While running for governor, he credited his daughter for influencing his own views after the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.
“Hope woke up like many of you did five weeks ago and said, ‘Dad, you’re the only person I know who is in elected office. You need to stop what’s happening with this,’” Walz said at the time.
Still, not everything between Walz and Hope is always serious. Including at the Democratic convention, so far.
On the first day, as Walz spoke with a reporter in the stands, Hope and her teenage brother did what many kids would do if their parents were on camera. They held up bunny ears behind his head.
Soon after, Walz himself shared the video on Twitter, saying, “my kids keep me humble.”
Copyright 2024, NPR
