By Nina Moini, Minnesota Public Radio News

Working closely together has always come naturally to Gwen Walz and her husband, Gov. Tim Walz. In fact, at times over their 30-year marriage, it’s been unavoidable, as she told MPR News in an hour-long interview in 2019 when he started in the governor’s office.

“Tim and I even shared a classroom, like, with just a divider right down the middle when we were teaching in Nebraska,” she explained. “And then in Minnesota, we taught in the same school, and we’ve always worked really closely together, not on everything, but on a number of things.”

Minnesota’s first lady, 58, has been an educator for nearly 30 years and a key political partner to her husband through his time in political office.

On Sunday, she is scheduled to join Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff on a western Pennsylvania campaign bus tour, which the campaign calls the first time all four “principals” will be together for meetings with voters in “community settings.”

From teaching to political life

Gwen Whipple grew up in western Minnesota and attended Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter and Minnesota State University, Mankato. She met Tim Walz as she began her career as an English teacher in Nebraska, where the governor was born. They married and moved back to Mankato where she taught English and he taught social studies and coached football at Mankato West High School.

Teacher Tania Lyon worked closely with and befriended the couple in the 1990s. Lyon said they both encouraged students to think for themselves and embrace learning.

“Gwen is an amazing woman,” Lyon told MPR News shortly after Walz emerged as Harris’ running mate. “She’s every bit as talented as Tim,” Lyon said. “Teaching English is about sometimes digging into the affairs of humanity and the human heart and she was very, very good at that.”

The partnership continued through Walz’s 12 years in Congress. When he entered the governor’s office in 2019, Gwen Walz tackled the topics of education and criminal justice. One of her goals was to improve educational resources for incarcerated people. She had her own office at the Capitol just down the hall from her husband’s corner office, the first of the state’s first ladies to do so. She told MPR News the governor offered to share an office.

“And I said, ‘Oh, no, You talk way too much.’ So we have to be able to get some work done here. And he completely agreed,” she said.

Balancing Roles

Gwen Walz appears to have adapted skills she honed in the classroom to her role in public life. She’s considered an engaged listener and measured speaker who occasionally becomes fired up to drive home a point. But the state’s first lady has also learned playing a policy role can be tricky. She angered Republicans when she called some out by name for opposing gun restrictions in 2019.

“There are seven senators sitting in seats where Tim Walz won, and they are Republicans. And we are coming,” the first lady said to sustained cheers.

Gov. Walz responded to criticism at the time by saying his wife has a voice and should use it. At the time, state Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, responded, “I think for the most part the Minnesota public wants to hear from their elected officials not from their spouses, especially when they are making threats.”

During her husband’s first term, Gwen Walz toured state prisons, held regular calls with Corrections department officials on strategic planning, and chaired a task force on recidivism. As MPR News reported in 2019, a panel discussion she was part of veered into the topic of race. The governor’s staff at the time asked Twin Cities Public Television, which was hosting the event, to delete footage because they were worried about how Gwen Walz would appear. The governor’s staff later said it was an overreaction on their part.

From ‘humble backgrounds’ to spotlight

The entire Walz family is now on the national stage and under scrutiny like never before. Tim Walz told a rally in Philadelphia on the day his name was announced as the next Democratic vice presidential hopeful, “I can’t wait for all of you, and America, to get to know my incredible wife, Gwen,” as the crowd cheered and he added, “Don’t ever underestimate teachers!”

In 2005, Pam Costain trained Gov. Walz at Camp Wellstone, a progressive effort to prepare Democrats to run for office named for the Minnesota U.S. senator, who died in a 2002 plane crash. Costain recently recalled she saw a true partnership between Tim and Gwen Walz, that reminds her of Paul and Sheila Wellstone, who also perished in the crash.

“They come from humble backgrounds. This is not probably where they felt their life was going to go, but it is gone there,” Costain went on to say, “I think you have in both these couples, true partnerships and true commitment to staying grounded in where they come from and who they are. I think people respond to that and love it.”

The Walzes have two children, Hope, 23, and Gus, 17.

Those who know Gwen Walz say she will likely continue to do things her way. She still teaches a class at Augsburg University in Minneapolis.

“I think teaching is one of the greatest gifts of my life,” she said. “You get to share in the lives of incredible students every single day.”