Gus Walz cries as his father Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz speaks Thursday during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
AP
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was onstage to accept his party’s nomination for the vice presidency on the third night of the Democratic National Convention when attention quickly shifted toward the packed crowd, where his 17-year-old son stood up with tears in his eyes, pointed to the stage and declared: “That’s my dad!”
The emotional moment Wednesday night captivated viewers as Walz addressed Democrats as Vice President Kamala Harris’s official running mate. His son and daughter, Gus and Hope Walz, were both crying as Walz talked about how he and his wife had struggled to have children, and how fertility treatments had made it possible for them to conceive.
In vitro fertilization was imperiled by a ruling in Alabama in February that said frozen embryos were people and anyone who destroyed them could be held liable. The unprecedented decision threw IVF treatment in that state into turmoil, and led some Republicans to distance themselves from the issue after facing backlash. Walz and his wife, Gwen Walz, have said that their children were conceived using a fertility treatment called intrauterine insemination, IUI.
Walz on Wednesday described their fertility struggles as “agony,” and he said protecting treatments like those they used are “a big part about what this election is about.”
“Hope, Gus and Gwen, you are my entire world, and I love you,” Walz said just before Gus got to his feet.
Hope, who was taking pictures of her dad with a disposable camera during his speech, held up her hands in the shape of a heart.
Gus’s emotional reaction went viral as clips spread on social media with the hashtag #thatsmydad. For many watching, it became the highlight of Walz’s speech.
“You know you’ve done well as a parent when your kids are as proud of you as Gus and Hope are of Tim Walz,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) wrote on X.
“Tim Walz was 100 percent pitch perfect, grand slam, touchdown in every possible way,” former Biden White House communications director Kate Bedingfield wrote on X. “And yet somehow Gus Walz was even better.”
Walz and his wife shared in a statement to People this month that Gus, a high school senior, has a nonverbal learning disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and an anxiety disorder. They told the magazine that, like many families, it took time to figure out “how to make sure we did everything we could to make sure Gus would be set up for success as he was growing up.”
They said it eventually became clear to them that his conditions are “his secret power” and described Gus as “brilliant” and “an excellent son and brother.”
Walz’s children have been a point of pride during his time in public office. Last year, he posted a photo celebrating Hope’s graduation from Montana State University and, a few months later, shared a now-viral video of them going to the state fair.
Last fall, he shared a photo of him and his son in a car when Gus passed his driver’s exam, writing “proud dad moment.”