Football coach and cheerleader: How Tim Walz is defining masculinity in 2024

MANKATO, Minnesota — Kamala Harris' presidential campaign has made Tim Walz's stereotypically masculine traits ? a sports-lover, military veteran, gun owner and father ? central to his introduction to America's voters.

It's been a steady theme for the Democrats over the last two months - visiting college and high school football games, hunting for pheasants, hawking camo hats - as a counterweight to Donald Trump and JD Vance, their Republican rivals who are making a play for the "bro vote" and whose surrogates have tried to cast doubt on the 60-year-old Minnesota governor's macho credentials.

Walz's latest pitch came Friday on The Rich Eisen Show, a popular sports podcast where he ditched his political stump speech to boast about the Minnesota Vikings' 5-0 record and reminisce on the glory days of his time as a defensive coordinator for a high school football team.

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"We had a responsibility defense, I know it's gonna shock some folks on the political side, but I'm super conservative," he joked.

From appearing on podcasts for jocks to jabs about "childless cat ladies" to the debate over reproductive rights, the 2024 presidential campaign has had its share of direct appeals to voters around issues of gender and gender stereotypes. The possibility that Harris could become the first female president, and where Walz would be stepping into uncharted waters as the No. 2 serving under her, suggests that some of the same tensions seen during this White House race could resonate into a potential Harris administration.

Voters are certainly getting their fair share of gender-minded messaging.

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Consider the battle of who has the more macho merchandise, which ensued after the July assassination attempt on Trump — "Fight! Fight! Fight!" shirts depicting Trump raising his fist in the air being hauled off stage by Secret Service quickly went viral. After Walz's elevation to the national stage, the Democratic campaign hawked 'Harris Walz' branded camo hats with bright orange lettering resembling something for sale at a hunting store.

Walz hasn't always come off as a natural Midwestern dad to all Americans.

A brief video clip of Walz fumbling with shotgun shells and a photo of him without his weapon in a southern Minnesota field during the annual pheasant home opener last Saturday prompted the MAGA-aligned internet to question whether his years of experience as a hunter were little more than a campaign tactic. The former Democratic U.S. representative has long prided himself of being the top shot in the Congressional Shootout, often using the anecdote on the stump to push for gun reform.

"He talks about this, 'I'm a big hunter, I had a gun in my car' and then you see a photo and he looks like a moron loading a shot gun," Sean Spicer, the former Trump administration White House press secretary, told USA TODAY. "It was like he was dressing up for Halloween and said, 'I'm going to be a man this year.'"

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Trump has specifically tried to woo younger, male voters.

He's appeared on "bro" podcasts with comedians like Theo Von and Andrew Schulz, video game streamer Adin Ross and Bar Stool Sports' "Bussin with the Boys." The former president and his campaign have leaned into a wide variety of masculinity messages, from chest-thumping appearances by Hulk Hogan and UFC CEO Dana White to Trump threatening military action against his political opponents and picking a running mate in Vance who has faced widespread backlash for his past comments about women who don't have children.

"It's just a basic fact — you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC — the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children,” Vance said in a 2021 interview with Fox News's Tucker Carlson. “How does it make any sense that we've turned our country over to people who don't really have a direct stake in it?"

Michael Steele, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee and a frequent Trump critic, told USA TODAY the former president's strongarm approach to leadership, dated views and treatment of women showcases the worst that manhood has to offer.

"We have gotten to the point where we can show our leadership and our strength through other means than our fists or harsh words," said Steele, who also served as Maryland's lieutenant governor. "We're not cavemen anymore. We don't have to do that anymore."

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Walz presents an alternate version of masculinity in American politics, Steele said, while also reaching out to voters who don't align with Trump and Vance's version of gender presentation.

"What Walz offers is probably the more traditionally and actually appropriate view of what a 'real man' is. He's a father, he's a coach, he's at times a disciplinarian, he's the guy who's going to help you fix your car," Steele said, adding: "I think he's a phenomenal role model."

An unsuspecting messenger

Walz's version of virility embraces the male-dominated spaces of football fields, veterans' groups and hunting grounds, but also classrooms, Pride parades, and abortion clinics.

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Earlier this month during his debate with Vance in New York, Walz told the story of Hadley Duvall, a Kentucky woman who was 12-years-old when she was raped and impregnated by her stepfather. He also reflected on Amber Thurman, a 28-year-old Georgia woman who died in August of 2022 after she waited hours for a hospital to treat complications from an abortion pill.

"The fact of the matter is, how can we as a nation say that your life and your rights, as basic as the right to control your own body, is determined on geography?” Walz said. "There's a very real chance had Amber Thurman lived in Minnesota, she would be alive today."

Amy Diehl, a sexism researcher and author of the 2023 book "Glass Walls," told USA TODAY that men like Walz who are intentional about rejecting traits and beliefs commonly dubbed as toxic masculinity are the "tonic" to harmful stigma associated with expectations of men and boys.

It's something that may be coming through in the polling numbers.

A recent USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll found that Trump leads with male voters by 12 points in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state that could decide who wins the White House. Another survey also found that Walz and Harris scored much higher points with women than Trump and Vance. More than half of women polled said they have an unfavorable view of Vance while just 28% said the same of Walz.

Though more women than men identify as Democrats, Walz's advocacy for women before and after joining the 2024 presidential ticket is not to be missed, Diehl said.

Democrats praise Walz, a former teacher, for codifying the right to abortion in Minnesota, openly talking about his family's infertility issues, being the first faculty advisor for his high school's gay-straight alliance and mandating menstrual products be put in all school bathrooms. Trump and his allies have tried to turn the tables on that last policy by spreading the nickname "Tampon Tim" for the Minnesota governor.

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"He shows you can be masculine, but also not threatened by women as equals, or women who are in positions of power," Diehl said. "In fact, you can be cheerleaders for them."

'We all experience the same emotions'

Trump and his allies have taunted Walz since he joined the Harris campaign in August over his exaggerated gestures, his emotive addresses and his ever-present grin.

"You think because you throw on a flannel shirt or are in camo that makes you a man? I just think that reeks of desperation," said Spicer, the former Trump aide who now hosts his own podcast that routinely promotes his ex-boss' presidential campaign.

But Walz's intentional approach to positivity and gender is appealing to some voters.

Despite having already cast his vote for Trump, Philadelphia resident Tim Nguyen told USA TODAY the former president's rough rhetoric and mudslinging shows a tired side of "manliness."

Nguyen, a 26-year-old accountant, said seeing non-aggressive displays of emotion from politicians is encouraging, including the VP debate where Vance openly sympathized with Walz after he mentioned his teenage son had witnessed a shooting. Exhibiting non-macho emotions toward one another, Nguyen said, should be a sign of humanity, not weakness.

"Lowkey, they should be running for president," he said. "I think they're really well spoken and were there for one another."

At the DNC, Walz talked about his children when his son Gus, then 17, jumped out of his seat, visibly weeping and pointed at his father, saying "I love you Dad! That's my dad!" Walz embraced his son after the speech when his family came on stage.

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"He displays being a loving father to his kids, he displays being helpful and neighborly," Diehl said. "These are all things that make him relatable to so many men in America."

Vance, a father of two young children, has also put his fatherhood in the spotlight and made increasing the birth rate a top talking point of the Trump campaign. The Ohio senator often details the struggles Americans undergo for getting affordable child care, agreeing with Walz in the debate to put more government spending toward the issue.

Though the reception was largely positive to Gus' reaction in Chicago, right-wing commentators and Trump supporters shared a different tenor of comment on social media.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a member of the USA TODAY Network, reported Jay Weber, a conservative radio host, made a now-deleted post on X in response to the interaction.

"If the Walzs (sic) represent today's American man, this country is screwed: 'Meet my son, Gus. He's a blubbering b---- boy. His mother and I are very proud'."

First-time voter and University of Michigan student Daniel Simpson told USA TODAY watching this interaction between father and son was "refreshing." To get criticized for showing emotions, Simpson said "causes a lot of mental health issues, because men feel like they have to hide any form of feeling depressed or anything like that."

"Men are supposed to be the tough ones and fight (emotions) off and be angry as opposed to sad," he said. "I think that really needs to change and I think we all experience the same emotions."

For Simpson, Walz embracing a joyful approach to politics while working to promote equity makes him hopeful for the future. It's one of the reasons he cast his ballot early for the Harris-Walz ticket.

"To me, that shows a real man, someone who sticks with the country's (values)," Simpson said. "The Pledge of Allegiance says 'freedom and justice for all.'"

— Sam Woodward is the Minnesota elections reporting fellow for USA TODAY focusing on Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's candidacy. You can reach her at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How Tim Walz is defining masculinity differently than Trump, Vance