Hope Walz gets a shoutout in Gov. Tim Walz' speech on Wednesday at the DNC (2024)

Hope Walz, daughter of Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, cheers during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Wednesday. Erin Hooley/AP hide caption

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Erin Hooley/AP

The NPR Network will be reporting live from Chicago throughout the week bringing youthe latest on the Democratic National Convention.

Hope Walz had a job to do: film a PSA with her dad, Gov. Tim Walz, as Minnesota enacted hands-free driving.

This was 2019 and Hope Walz, sitting in the driver's seat of a car, joked with her dad about just who was doing the texting and driving.

"We want to make sure our teen drivers are not texting—" Tim Walz started.

"No, no, no," Hope Walz interjected. "I think it's actually mostly bald men."

"Cut!" the governor called.

The video is just one of the snapshots into the relationship between Hope and Gov. Walz that has resurfaced and gone viral since Vice President Harris was deciding who to choose as her running mate.

Another video shows the two at the Minnesota State Fair in 2023.

The two had an agreement: Dad picks something old to do and Hope picks something new. Her choice? The slingshot, an extreme ride that bungees riders in an open sphere into the air and back down over and over.

Then, he said, it would be time to eat. The governor called for corndogs.

"I'm vegetarian," Hope reminded him.

"Turkey then," Walz quipped.

The videos with his daughter are a new political dynamic that has rarely been seen on the campaign trail, according to historian Kate Anderson Brower.

"I think that's what makes it unique is her comfort level and the fact that she does seem really charismatic," Brower explained. "And the fact that they can use her in a way to tell their story."

Now that Walz has joined Harris on the ticket — Hope is on the campaign trail, even sporting a Harris-Walz camouflage hat that nods to her dad's style and, potentially, to pop culture.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and his daughter Hope, wearing a camouflage hat that has gone viral as she has stumped with her father on the campaign trail, joined Rep. Ruben Gallego, Democratic senatorial candidate in Arizona, on a campaign stop August 9 in Phoenix. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images hide caption

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Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

It's not new to see first and second children getting involved in politics while their parents are in office, but it’s still very common for families to stay private.

Harris’s two adult step-children, Ella and Cole Emhoff, have largely stayed out of the political spotlight during her time as vice president.

Now, both have a role at the convention. On Tuesday night, Cole honored his dad and Harris in a video.

However, Gov. Walz enters the national spotlight with a family that is used to being a part of his political messaging.

After joining Harris on the ticket, Walz repeatedly told the story of how he and his wife struggled to start a family, undergoing years of fertility treatments.

Finally, they were able to have their first child, Hope, a story he repeated during his convention speech Wednesday in Chicago.

At one Arizona rally, the crowd started chanting: "Hope, Hope, Hope" as Hope herself looked on.

"I'm not crying, you're crying," an emotional Tim Walz said.

Brower, the historian, saw that moment as particularly striking.

"We haven't seen that sort of level of intimacy between a candidate and their child so early on in an election cycle," she said.

"I think part of that is there's kind of a sense now in this race that they've got to move things along fast because it changed very late in the game," she added. "I don't think they're going to waste any time to try to get people to know who Tim Walz is."

Hope Walz, left, wearing a campaign t-shirt, holds hands with her dad, Tim Walz, as he campaigned for Congress in 2005. William Handke hide caption

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William Handke

Longtime Republican strategist Kevin Madden worked on Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2008 and 2012. Romney's large family joined the campaign trail and Madden viewed that as an asset.

"When you see a candidate with their family, and you see a candidate that is close to their family, traveling with their family, it helps folks identify with that candidate more easily," Madden said. "That does, oftentimes, give you another opportunity to then make an appeal on issues, on policy."

Hope may offer another advantage: appealing to young voters, a group Harris and Walz are courting.

Her dad is open to hearing from them. While running for governor, he credited his daughter for influencing his own views after the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Fla.

"Hope woke up like many of you did five weeks ago and said, ‘Dad, you’re the only person I know who is in elected office. You need to stop what’s happening with this,'" Walz said at the time.

This deviates from past relationships between political leaders and their children, said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history at Princeton University.

"The kids were kind of just, you know, 'props," he said. "This is very different."

But while the Walz family adjusts to the national attention, it is doing so with family dynamics in full display.

On the first day of the Democratic National Convention, as Walz spoke with a reporter in the stands, Hope and her teenage brother did what many kids would do if their parents were on camera. They held up bunny ears behind his head.

Soon after, Walz himself shared the video on Twitter, saying, “my kids keep me humble.”

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