The unbilled star of Wednesday night’s Democratic National Convention was Gus Walz—the 17-year-old son of Gwen and Tim Walz—who couldn’t hold in his tears, his joy, or his pride at seeing his father on the national stage.
“Hope, Gus, and Gwen, you are my entire world and I love you,” Walz said in his speech, after talking about the years of fertility treatments he and Gwen underwent to have children. That’s when Gus stood up to proclaim to the whole convention center and everyone watching “That’s my dad!”
The Walzes have opened up about their family in a People magazine interview, and especially about Gus, a young man whose parents say his condition is a “secret power." He has a non-verbal learning disorder, ADHD, and an anxiety disorder.
"Like so many American families, it took us 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," the couple told People.
"It took time, but what became so immediately clear to us was that Gus’ condition is not a setback," they added. They explained that Gus "is brilliant, hyper-aware of details that many of us pass by, and above all else, he’s an excellent son and brother to his sibling."
The Walz’s family values shine through in that interview, just like they did Wednesday night in Tim Walz’s speech. He’s taken the simple, beautiful message that “everybody belongs” to the national debate, and for him it clearly starts at home.
That was true before he became the nominee. It’s in all those viral videos he’s done with his daughter, Hope, who makes fun of him unmercifully as a daughter should. It’s all over Walz’s social media pages.
That’s a pretty sharp contrast to those other guys. You don’t see a whole lot of love oozing from Donald Jr. or Eric for their dad Donald at the Republican National Convention. Neither Trump’s wife nor daughter Ivanka chose to speak this time around, and have been noticeably—and deliberately in the case of Ivanka—absent from the campaign trail. And let’s not forget Trump’s youngest.
"I also wanna thank my entire family for being here. Don, Kimberly, Ivanka and Jared. Eric and Lara. Tiffany and Michael. Barron," Trump said at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at RNC. "We love our Barron."
Barron, however, was not at the RNC, and Newsweek reported, “led to laughter from the crowd.”
Here’s what Sen. JD Vance, Trump’s vice president pick, said about his family in his acceptance speech: “I’m joined by my beautiful wife, Usha, an incredible lawyer and a better mom. And our three beautiful kids, Ewan who’s 7, Vivek who’s 4, Mirabel who’s 2. Now they’re back at the hotel, and kids, if you’re watching, Daddy loves you very much but get your butts in bed. It’s 10 o’clock.”
Feel the love.
A few weeks later, Vance went on a podcast with YouTube comedians the NELK Boys where he laughed about telling Ewan “Son, shut the hell up for 30 seconds about Pikachu” while he was on the phone with Trump.
If it’s about family values, Democrats win every time.
Correction: A previous version of this story gave a wrong first name for Gwen Walz.
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