Meet the family of Tim Walz, Kamala Harris' VP pick

Before Walz ran for Congress, where he served from 2007 to 2019, he was a high school geography teacher and football coach at Mankato West High School from 1996 to 2006. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported he also served as the faculty advisor for his school's Gay-Straight Alliance.

Walz also served in the National Guard for 24 years. He enlisted in 1981 and retired as a master sergeant in 2005.

Walz's brother, Craig, died in 2016 when a tree fell on his campsite during a severe storm in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) at Duncan Lake in Minnesota, as reported by WCCO and KARE11. Craig's son Jacob, who was then 8 years old, was severely injured but recovered from his injuries.

Craig, like Walz's two other siblings, Jeff and Sandy, was a teacher.

"My mom raised four teachers, and three out of four of us married teachers. Working in the family business for 20+ years, I learned just how much hard work goes into the job," Tim Walz wrote on Facebook in May.

After graduating from Chadron State College, Walz worked in China for a year with WorldTeach, a non-profit organization that places volunteers around the world to teach English and other subjects.

Upon his return, he began teaching in Nebraska, his home state, where he met Gwen.

According to her official bio, Gwen is a "lifelong Minnesotan." She attended Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter and Minnesota State University in Mankato before she began teaching English in Nebraska, where she met her future husband.

Soon after they met, the two started hosting summer trips for students to travel to China, a project that continued until 2003.

In addition to education, Gwen is also passionate about prison reform and education inside prisons.

Walz frequently posts on social media about his kids.

Gwen joined Instagram the same day her husband was announced as Harris' running mate, and she has since posted just one photo: a shot of her husband and their kids.

The Walz family also has a rescue dog, Scout, and a rescue cat, Honey.

In a March 2024 interview with the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Walz shared his IVF journey publicly after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that frozen embryos are considered people, which threatened access to fertility treatments in the state.

He said they went through seven years of fertility treatments at the Mayo Clinic before Gwen told her husband she was pregnant with their daughter, Hope.

"Gwen and I have two beautiful children because of reproductive healthcare like IVF. This issue is deeply personal to our family and so many others," he wrote on Facebook.

"It's not by chance that we named our daughter Hope," Walz told the Star Tribune, referencing the yearslong fertility struggles he and his wife went through.

In September 2023, Walz posted on Instagram to celebrate National Daughter's Day. "I have the best daughter a dad could possibly ask for. Happy National Daughter's Day," he wrote.

Newsweek reported Hope attended the University of Minnesota.

Walz also posts about his son, who turns 18 in October. Last October, he posted in celebration of Gus passing his road test to get his driver's license.

"My son Gus just passed his (what do you call it? A drivers license exam?). Proud dad moment," he wrote.