When Vice President Kamala Harris named Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate this month, the country was introduced to a new political figure whose family background quickly attracted attention.
For the Walz family, the biggest test on the national stage begins Wednesday evening when First Lady Gwen Walz steps into the spotlight with a narrated video and officially introduces her husband at the Democratic Party Convention.
Gwen and Tim, both former high school teachers, are parents of two children, Hope and Gus. The couple have spoken openly about naming their daughter Hope after years of trying to have a child.
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In his first speech as Harris’s vice presidential candidate, Walz said IVF was a “personal” matter for him, recalling the “years of infertility treatments” before their daughter was born.
“Even though we wouldn’t make the same decision for ourselves, there is one golden rule: Mind your own business,” Walz said in Philadelphia. “Look, that includes IVF. And that is a very personal matter for me and my family.”
Years earlier, when he first ran for governor of Minnesota, he was sent a campaign flyer in an envelope that read, “My wife and I started a family through artificial insemination.”
But the Walzes did not technically perform IVF, as the New York Times reported this week.
The campaign has since clarified that the couple underwent intrauterine insemination (also called IUI). The process is often referred to by those involved under the umbrella term IVF, but there are notable differences. The most important of these is that the IUI process takes place in the body, while IVF is carried out in a laboratory.
What did Tim and Gwen Walz say about IUI?
On Tuesday, amid growing criticism of her husband’s statements about their desire to have children, Gwen Walz issued a statement giving a more comprehensive account of her family’s experiences.
“Like so many who have experienced these challenges, we kept it mostly to ourselves at the time – and didn’t even tell our wonderful and close family the details,” Walz said.
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IUI, which is often attempted before IVF, is not as politically controversial because it does not involve the potential destruction of embryos, which some anti-abortion groups, including the Catholic Church, equate with unborn children.
“In vitro fertilization involves fertilizing an egg outside the uterus and then implanting the embryo. IUI involves inserting sperm and improving the egg’s mobility so that fertilization occurs inside the uterus rather than outside. Those are the main differences,” explains Julie Burkhart, president of Wellspring Health Access in Wyoming.
How did the Harris campaign respond?
The Walz family’s desire to have children was criticized by Trump’s campaign team and other right-wing forces after Tim Walz cited it as a means of criticizing Republicans’ stance on reproductive rights.
Earlier this month, Walz criticized Republican vice presidential candidate and Senator JD Vance of Ohio, saying, “If it were up to him, I wouldn’t have a family because of IVF.”
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After details of their fertility treatments came to light, Vance accused Walz of lying about his family’s IVF treatment: “Today it came out that Tim Walz lied when he said he started a family through IVF,” he wrote on social media. “Who lies about something like that?”
In response, Mia Ehrenberg, a spokeswoman for the Harris-Walz campaign, defended Walz, saying, “Governor Walz is talking like normal people. He used a common acronym for fertility treatments.”
Dr. Jason Griffith, a reproductive endocrinologist at Shady Grove Fertility in Houston, added more information. He said Newsweek that patients often confuse the terms at the beginning of treatment.
“They come in and say, ‘Oh, I want to do IVF.’ And when we talk about it, they realize, ‘Wait a minute, this isn’t what I thought – where you just put the sperm in the uterus.’ That’s actually intrauterine insemination (IUI),” Griffith said.
Who are the children of Gwen and Tim, Hope and Gus Walz?
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When Tim Walz accompanied Harris on the campaign trail, Gus and Hope were thrust into the national spotlight. They were even seen on the campaign trail wearing Harris-Walz camouflage hats, reminiscent of both the Midwest and pop culture.
Hope, 23, recently graduated from Montana State University and now works as a social worker in Montana. Her involvement in her father’s campaign helped him become a Gen Z star, and Hope has even built her own online following.
Gus, 17, will begin his senior year at St. Paul Central High School in the fall. Earlier this month, the Walz family announced People Magazine that Gus has a “nonverbal learning disorder,” ADHD, and an anxiety disorder.
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