Who Is Tim Walz's Wife Gwen?

Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, has been announced as Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate for the 2024 presidential election. Based on what's known about Tim's family, he seems to care for them very much. An important figure in Tim's family life is his wife, Gwen Walz.

She was born Gwen Whipple in Glencoe, Minnesota, and has three sisters. Her teaching career took her to Nebraska, where she met Tim. They were coworkers who taught at the same school but specialized in different subjects — Gwen taught English, and Tim taught social studies. Although not much is known about their early relationship, Tim's message on Facebook for Gwen's birthday in 2018 gave credit to someone in her life for helping get them together: "Happy Birthday to my amazing wife, Gwen. I'm so lucky your sister convinced you to go out with me."

Tim and Gwen got married in 1994, and two years later, they moved to her home state of Minnesota, both teaching at Mankato West High School. Together they took students on annual field trips to China. Education is one of the causes that Gwen is most passionate about.

Gwen Walz worked in a variety of schools and eventually moved up from being a teacher to being a school administrator at Mankato Area Public Schools. She is very dedicated to education reform and prison reform. Gwen's official biography on the Minnesota government website described her dedication to providing prisoners with higher education and emphasized that she sees them simply as "students." One thing she believes is possible with better education in prisons is the decrease of repeat offenders. In a 2019 PBS interview, Gwen spoke on that, saying, "Education is transformational" (via USA Today).

Gwen also worked to help felons who have completed their sentences receive the ability to vote. At a rally regarding that from early in Tim's tenure as governor, Gwen said, "Until we are all equal and have equality, none of us are equal and have equality" (via Twin Cities PBS). Her work came to fruition in in 2023 when parolees and felons finished with their sentences in Minnesota were granted the right to vote.

Helping people is something Gwen has always strived to do. Her biography said, "Throughout her life, Gwen has been working passionately to build a more just and equitable world. From teaching at prisons and promoting criminal justice reform, to advocating for the LGBTQ movement, Gwen's desire to learn from and work with others to advance meaningful change is her guiding principle." 

Gwen Walz and Tim Walz moved to St. Paul when Tim became governor in 2018. Gwen was the first Minnesotan First Lady to have an office at the Capitol. They also have two children named Hope and Gus. Hope's name is significant as Gwen and Tim struggled to conceive their first child, which Tim discussed in a March 2024 interview with the Star Tribune. He recounted that after seven years of IVF, he got a phone call from Gwen while she was crying and assumed it didn't work again. Tim told the outlet, "I said, 'Not again.' She said, 'No, I'm pregnant.' It's not by chance that we named our daughter Hope."

Gwen gave a glimpse into her role as a mom in a 2019 interview with Twin Cities PBS. She gave them a tour of her home office, which had pictures of her kids and a pair of dirty soccer cleats on a shelf. "I actually dug these out of the garbage," Gwen explained. They were Hope's, which she threw out after her soccer team lost the final game of the season. "And I couldn't bear it!" Gwen added. "You know, it was a symbolic moment."

Gwen will become the second lady if Kamala Harris beats Donald Trump in the 2024 election. Otherwise, that title would go to Trump's VP pick JD Vance's wife, Usha Vance.