Move over Chappell Roan: Tim Walz is the new Internet princess of the Midwest
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On Tuesday, Vice President Kamala Harris – the Democratic presidential nominee – announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate, and memes are already flooding social media. In that short time, the Internet dubbed Walz “the princess of the Midwest.”
At face value, the moniker is a nod to Gen Z superstar Chappell Roan’s 2023 album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, a reference to his upbringing in rural Missouri. But in this context, it also refers to the good and down-to-earth, Midwestern aesthetic that Walz evokes. It makes him a Gen Z hero and a lovable, approachable (and maybe even cute) representative of the American heart. It also puts Walz as a good match for Republican VP candidate JD Vance of Ohio, whom Democrats have described as out of touch and “weird.”
Walz has a background that many residents of the Democratic-leaning Blue Wall district that Harris wants to carry in the November election—can’t relate to. He was born and raised in Valentine, Nebraska, a small town he told MSNBC had a population of about 400. After graduating from high school, Walz enlisted in the National Army, where he served for 24 years. During that time, he moved to Minnesota, received his undergraduate degree from Chadron State College in Nebraska, and, later, his masters in education from Minnesota State University. He worked as a geography teacher and football coach at a public high school before turning to politics.
The meme-ification of Midwest values
So far, the reinvention of Walz’s meme-persona has focused on Gen Z’s interpretation of his Midwestern roots. “HUGE year for midwestern princesses,” one user X (formerly of Twitter) wrote in a caption alongside Walz and Roan, which has garnered 98,000 likes as of this writing. “Kamala is a brat and Walz is a Midwest Princess,” one user posted, echoed by a tweet that lamented, “I can’t believe the Dem ticket for 2024 is a Brat/Midwest Princess.” There have also been several iterations of Walz’s face pictured on Roan’s album cover—some more disturbing than others.
“As a kid raised by Mr. Rogers, who benefited from wonderful teachers in small-town America, Walz epitomizes what the midwest is all about,” Carnegie Mellon University professor Jeffrey Bigham wrote in X. Media strategist Michael Del Moro wrote, “Walz is a football coach, but also a professional consultant for a gay coalition in **rural Minnesota in the 1990s**.”
An elected VP with small town roots who wants to draw a big difference
In interviews, Walz emphasized his connection to small-town America and its values, especially in contrast to Vance. While discussing his commitment to public education with MSNBC, Walz made the mistake that while Vance grew up in a small town, he ended up attending Yale Law School: “That anger that JD Vance talked about Hillbilly Elegy? None of my hillbilly cousins went to Yale!”
In that same interview, Walz noted Vance’s time as a capitalist, saying he “knows nothing about small-town America,” and calling MAGA enthusiasts “weird.” The Harris campaign ran with the name strange to showcase the Trump-Vance ticket, making a play for greater relevancy with voters. And given his background, Walz is well-placed to distinguish between his connections to small-town America and Vance’s connections to the coastal elite, a juxtaposition that helps make Vance seem phony.
Midwest cheers “good luck, babe”
Kamala HQ, the official Harris campaign account on TikTok and X, seems to agree. The first video posted after the official announcement this morning included clips of that same MSNBC interview about small towns, set to a triple-back beat and interspersed with footage of Walz walking in a field and feeding farm animals.
Now it seems the internet is jumping on Walz’s apparent Midwest aesthetic as the ultimate example of normalcy in contrast to Vance’s weirdness. There was praise for Walz’s wonderful trip to the Minnesota State Fair with his daughter, referring to his ice fishing and hunting hobbies, with many tweets saying “VP stands for ‘very precious.’ in infant development, focusing more on his people skills than on his political skills.
The internet’s lightning-speed reaction to Walz joining the ticket is further evidence that meme culture, driven by Gen Z, has become part of Harris’ campaign. The question now is how long the ticket can ride this wave before it hits the bottom.
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