Minnesota’s eldest daughter may have been America’s second daughter. Now, Waltz is making a name for himself beyond his famous father and family.
An Instagram photo shows Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his daughter Hope on a sunny fall Sunday after completing a 10-mile race during the Twin Cities Marathon weekend.
The father-daughter duo trotted across the cracked asphalt of Minneapolis-St. Paul. On October 5th, Paul had his bib attached to his abdomen and right thigh.
Their photoshoot was punctuated by big smiles. It was a happier ending to the race than about a year ago, when then-Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Walz lost to current President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance.
Since the election, Hope Walz has gained 500,000 TikTok followers who post from her home in Bozeman, Montana. She’s courting Gen Z women, many of whom skipped the 2024 election by an unusually close margin, with her views on pop culture and politics.
Trump’s election victory was partly due to attracting young people to the polls. Since then, the Democratic Party has been strategizing how to win the district.
It remains to be seen whether her online following will translate into Democratic voters, but Ms. Walz is connecting with her core audience of women under 35. She is using her social media presence to provide a human space to talk about politics. It’s an alternative idea at a time when Americans are divided on key issues and lawmakers are struggling to calm the gap.
The 2024 election “is what it is and there’s no going back at this point, you know? So all we can do is move forward,” Walz told USA TODAY, referencing the Harris campaign’s “We’re not going back” slogan.
Tim Walz’s buddy builds her brand
Mr. Walz, who spent his childhood in Mankato, Minn. (population about 45,000), spent many of his six campaigns as his father’s sidekick as a long-unknown Midwestern congressman defended his rural U.S. House seat. When her father became governor, she co-starred in a public service announcement about distracted driving and video spots at the Minnesota State Fair.
Last summer, after Gov. Walz selected her as Harris’ running mate, she shot to national prominence after she used her unique background as a married former football coach and active deer hunter in the U.S. military to sell herself to voters.
Walz quickly garnered media attention, sparking popular X posts during a campaign to cut down on gutsy profiles like her father’s.
She was seen wearing a camo hat, the Harris campaign’s answer to the red MAGA cap. She wore “Brat” lime green nail color, inspired by pop star Charli XCX’s Grammy-winning smash album, to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
She didn’t make headlines by touting Democratic policy proposals. Rather, Walz and her brother Gus made headlines when they photobombed their father’s Democratic National Committee interview on MSNBC with bunny ears.
Harris and her father then lost.
After the election, Walz returned to the Bozeman apartment she shares with two roommates. “They’re great,” Walz told USA TODAY. “Sharing a bathroom is not great.”
Mr. Walz has not yet completely retired from politics. If Democrats are to win in 2026 and even 2028, she believes the party’s messengers need to be more relatable to ordinary people. The party’s favorability ratings hit record lows in two separate opinion polls in March.
“There’s more to all of us, and we’re not good at showing it, so I’m going to show it in my own way,” says Walz.
The tattooed hiker who became famous on TikTok
Online, Waltz appears to be achieving her goals, amassing nearly 650,000 fans on social media platforms in less than a year. Her interests are wide-ranging. Waltz has weighed in on reality shows like the much-talked-about Salt Lake City version of “The Real Housewives” and pop superstar Taylor Swift. She talks about her tattoos and life with her boyfriend.
Walz also accused Fox News of being “boring” and told her to kiss him from behind. In one TikTok video, she blamed Trump and “all the Republicans” in Congress for the ongoing federal government shutdown. She encouraged her supporters to get vaccinated, a move that appeared to meet widespread skepticism from U.S. Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Courtney Jurich, a social science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, believes that Walz’s Midwestern “girl next door” personality is “the new ‘Can you have a pork chop?’ personality.” Political observers have long hypothesized that the candidate who looks most like a friend is the candidate voters ultimately choose on Election Day.
“What I think people, people of influence like Hope and Hope herself, have done, perhaps unintentionally, is, ‘I’m not this angry feminist,’ you know, or that boogeyman, right?” says Urich, referring to long-standing stereotypes. “He has a rational mind. He can talk without getting irritated.”
Wellness creator Kate Grabban agrees that Waltz’s popularity stems from its relatability.
“A lot of the reason why she and her family resonate is because they’re normal people. They speak in a very easy-to-understand way,” Glavan told USA TODAY.
The Minnesota native, who boasts 150,000 TikTok followers, added: “People on the left often use theoretical and academic language, but that diminishes people.”
The apple may not fall far from the tree. During the 2024 election campaign, Governor Walz drew national attention when he used the word “bizarre” to describe his opponents, Trump and Vance. Governor Walz’s common, people-like image extends to his daughter as well.
“I think people were probably drawn to me because they could see themselves,” Waltz says of her audience.
“To some degree, I care deeply about issues and am very outspoken about them, but I’m also a normal 24-year-old,” Walz added. “I go to work and go hiking on the weekends.”
Hope Walz works as a social worker at a homeless shelter. Will she be able to influence voters too?
Like most 20-somethings adjusting to graduate school life, Walz, who works part-time at a ski resort in Montana during the winter and at a homeless shelter year-round, is considering rising costs.
Like her father, she is realistic about spending. The governor revealed last year that he has no significant investments, bonds, stock holdings, real estate or current residence outside of the Minnesota Governor’s Mansion.
Affordability was a central concern for voters in the 2024 presidential election and remains a key concern, especially among younger voters, heading into the 2026 midterm elections.
“I think young people felt, or still feel, more or less hopeless, and they’re like, ‘It doesn’t matter, it’s not going to work anyway, who cares who wins? I’m already struggling, I can’t find a job in this job market,'” Walz says.
But can talking about the cost of living mobilize young people? The left has yet to match the influence of conservative influencers who took up social issues last year, such as Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, and slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
And while many left-wing stars endorsed Ms. Harris and campaigned in support of her bid for the White House, it had no effect on the Democratic ticket. In a recent Associated Press poll, less than 25% of Americans said they approve of celebrities speaking out on political issues.
But Walz pointed to the rise in the past year of left-wing thinkers like Hasan Piker, a popular commentator who broadcasts on the gaming platform Twitch.
“We hope we can get our message out to people,” Walz said. “I think we let the right dominate a little bit and then they create the narrative.”
Looking forward to Waltz’s future: Where will she go?
The sun shone on the bridges of Minneapolis and the streets of St. Paul on Sunday as the Waltz father-daughter duo ran 10 miles in the Twin Cities Marathon. Walz has raised about $3,000 for Girls on the Run, a nonprofit organization she joined as a child.
She posted a photo of herself with her father on Instagram. The day marked a bright spot for the pair after a year of both personal peaks and pitfalls.
First, there is the loss. Then, on a Saturday night in June, a friend of the Walz family, state Sen. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, were shot and killed by a man posing as a police officer. Then, two months later, a gunman opened fire at a tree-lined church in Minneapolis during back-to-school Mass in August, killing two children and injuring 18 others.
Governor Walz is currently preparing for another election campaign, announcing his intention to seek re-election for a third term on September 16th. Governor Walz is also thinking about his future. “I’m trying to figure out how I feel and where I want to fit in,” she says.
She may stay in Montana or move to Arizona to help candidates run for president in 2026. And no matter what path he decides to take next year, Walz has no intention of returning in 2024 and has no intention of returning.
