Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz is still astonished at her family’s sudden circumstances since Kamala Harris picked her husband Tim as her running mate.
So much is new, she can hardly put it into words. ‘I could probably name what isn’t wild about it,’ she told DailyMail.com on the second day of the Democratic National Convention as it was underway Tuesday night.
Walz packed 21 family members into prime seats in the United Center to soak in the moment, while her husband’s image was beamed into the stadium from Milwaukee after acts including Lil Jon and Patti LaBelle.
She stopped for an interview inside a venue packed with cheering Democrats who are suddenly embracing the Minnesota governor, 60, along with his dad jokes and his call for campaigning with ‘joy.’
The Minnesota first lady cast aside what she said were staff admonitions not to talk to the press – in a signal of how she might chart her own path if she makes it to Washington. (Harris has resisted pressure for a formal interview and answered only brief questions from reporters).
One surreal moment for Walz came when she suddenly saw her name appear in huge letters on a campaign bus for a tour through battleground Pennsylvania before the power couples made their way to Chicago.
‘I would say this. When you see your name like the Harris-Walz on the bus, you know the sign? Wow. I mean, really?’ she said in amazement. ‘It’s a real education, I guess. Even if you’re running. It happened fast,’ she said.
She said the block letters with the two names made a big impression.
Walz sported a bright red dress for the occasion, and came into the arena to snap selfies with some of the 21 family members she brought along. All the while she tended to her mother as well as her mother-in-law at the event, which featured performances by rappers like Common and Lil Jon along with speeches by political luminaries headlined by Barack Obama.
There is one topic she simply won’t touch: whether the Harris and Walz names merit an apostrophe: an obscure but controversial topic that got the New York Times treatment after the two names became linked. The issue, which appears to be an unsettled stylistic question, is whether to add an ‘s’ after either or both of them when stating a possessive.
It’s Waltz’s curse.
‘I’m staying out of that one. It’s a really interesting conversation. I’m an English teacher,’ she sidestepped diplomatically.
‘There are lots of disagreements on grammar,’ she explained.
Nor is she ready to give any hint that she’s measuring the drapes on the U.S. Naval Observatory, the mansion in Washington, D.C. that is home to the sitting vice president.
‘We’re trying to hold the Minnesota House right now,’ she quipped when asked if she’d make any changes.
Walz didn’t speak about her future career plans should she move to Washington. First lady Jill Biden continues to teach at a community college.
She has long championed educational causes, and sponsored clubs at school. She and Walz met at a school where they both taught in Nebraska. In addition to teaching, she served as a public school administrator in Minnesota for two decades. She has also worked to expand educational opportunities for prisoners.