Who is Gwen Walz, Minnesota’s first lady and wife of VP candidate Tim Walz?

VP candidate Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris to hold first joint rally

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has been chosen as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate in the 2024 election.

If Harris and Walz ultimately win the election and move on to the White House, his wife, Gwen Walz, would become second lady of the United States.

So who is Gwen Walz, Minnesota’s first lady?

Gwen Walz, née Whipple, was born in Glencoe, about 55 miles west of Minneapolis, and raised in western Minnesota by her parents Val and Linn. She has three sisters.

She attended Gustavus Adolphus in St. Peter, then started her teaching career in Nebraska, where she met her future husband, Tim Walz.

The two married in 1994 and moved to Mankato in 1996, where she taught for more than two decades.

When Tim Walz was elected governor of Minnesota in 2018, the family moved to St. Paul. They have two children, Hope and Gus.

According to her state bio, some of her passions include “teaching at prisons and promoting criminal justice reform, to advocating for the LGBTQ movement” with a goal to “build a more just and equitable world.”

She has worked with the Bard Prison Initiative, which helps incarcerated people access and afford higher education. She is also on the board for the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games. In 2019, she joined Augsburg University to work on “several special projects … including government relations and promoting public service careers for students.”

As first lady, Gwen Walz has had an active and, at times, public role in shaping policy. She has given public speeches in favor of restoring voting rights to felons — which Minnesota did in 2023 — and gun control legislation.

According to a 2019 interview with MPR News, she has an office just down the hall from her husband at the Capitol. She is the only first lady in state history to have an office there.