Who is Tim Walz's wife? Get to know Democratic VP candidate's family

After a rapid-fire vetting process, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was announced as Vice President Kamala Harris ’ running mate on Tuesday morning.

But Walz was a public educator before entering politics – just like his wife, Gwen Walz.

Gwen Walz’s early life

More: Tim Walz is Kamala Harris' VP pick: Minnesota governor named running mate

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Gwen was born in Glencoe, Minnesota , a small city in the southeastern region of the state with a population of just under 6,000 residents as of the 2020 census.

She grew up in the western part of the state along with her three sisters, according to the governor’s official website. Her parents, Val and Linn, were also public educators and small business owners.

Gwen went on to receive degrees from Gustavus Adolphus College, a private institution in St. Peter, as well as Minnesota State University in Mankato. Gwen began her career teaching English in Nebraska, where she met fellow educator Tim Walz.

The pair wed in 1994. Shortly after getting married, they established a small business of their own: Educational Travel Adventures, Inc., which organized yearly educational trips for students to China. They traveled alongside their students nearly every summer until 2003.

More: Tim Walz's wife Gwen, a former teacher, is a 'champion' of college behind bars

Gwen’s career

The 39th First Lady of Minnesota has had a wide-ranging career in education. She has taught in public, alternative, and migrant schools. She also served as an administrator and coordinator for Mankato Area Public Schools, which falls in the same congressional district her husband represented from 2007 to 2019.

Gwen has also advocated for education in the prison system and has taught incarcerated individuals across the country. Central to Gwen’s advocacy in correctional education is The Bard Prison Initiative in upstate New York, which provides educational opportunities to those in prison. She has advocated for Bard’s model to be used throughout Minnesota and worked to install a new college curriculum in the state’s prisons.

Her official biography notes Gwen’s passion, saying that she “understands that corrections must be an inclusive component of our education system, and by expanding opportunity, our state can dramatically reduce recidivism rates and most importantly, transform lives.”

Gwen and Tim Walz’ children

The Walz have two children together, Hope and Gus . They were born in 2001 and 2006.

As the oldest, Hope was born after Gwen underwent fertility treatments for seven years. In an address to Minnesotans in March, Tim shared the couple’s struggle to get pregnant and how they used IVF treatments to conceive their daughter.

He and Gwen are staunch supporters of reproductive rights , an issue that he has made a cornerstone of his time as Minnesota’s governor.

Harris will appear with her vice presidential pick for the first time at a rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday, hours after the news broke. Viewers can watch the event with Harris and Walz live, beginning at 5:30 p.m. ET.

Swapna Venugopal contributed to the reporting of this story.

Melissa Cruz is an elections reporting fellow who focuses on voter access issues for the USA TODAY Network. You can reach her at mcruz@gannett.com or on X, formerly Twitter, at @MelissaWrites22.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who is Tim Walz's wife? Get to know Democratic VP candidate's family