When Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris picked her running mate earlier this month, she chose a politician many undecided voters are used to seeing: a white-haired, Midwestern man with typical American values.
But in Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, she’s found something different: a male politician who frequently speaks about fertility treatments as a men’s issue. He and his wife Gwen struggled for years to have children before finding success in a method known as intrauterine insemination.
“I have to tell you, this is very personal for my family,” Walz said in his stump speech. “I remember every time the phone rang, I’d catch my breath, I’d feel nervousness, and then it would be a crushing feeling when they told us that the treatments didn’t work. The agony of that I can feel to this day.”
