Hope Walz never planned to become famous on TikTok. Now, her platform inspires change.
Hope Walz didn’t intend to become a social media phenomenon when she took out her phone and shot a video of her brother Gus. A few months back, the Walz siblings – children of former Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz – were headed home to Minnesota. Hope Walz wanted to post an update. And Hope Walz wanted to post an update.
From the front seat of a car, the pair described what it was like to drive without a Secret Service detail for the first time in months.
“We’re finally free,” Gus said from the driver’s seat.
“I would not describe it like that,” Hope replied. “It is a little weird, but it does feel freeing.”
“We’re going to be okay everyone,” she added, before posting the video to TikTok.
After spending months on the campaign trail with her dad, and watching Donald Trump and JD Vance clinch the White House, Walz was ready to return to her everyday life in Montana, where she’d settled after graduating college in 2023. The video Walz posted after the election received more than 400,000 hits. Her next video, which broke down her thoughts after the election, racked up 1 million views. Now, Walz is navigating her newfound public platform while trying to map out a future career in public service–a decision inspired by her time on the campaign.
TikTok fame was never part of the plan, said Walz, who now has more than 400,000 followers and 4.2 million total likes on the social media platform. Before the election, Walz’s social media accounts had been private. Walz admitted that despite her active involvement in the campaign, staffers urged her to refrain from posting anything until after election day. Then I thought, “Okay, people are really upset about this.” I should maybe say something.’ And then it kind of just went from there.”
A ‘servant leadership mindset’
Making social media content for mass consumption might be new to Walz, but she’s no stranger to coping with the pressures that come from being in the public eye.
Tim Walz was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives when Hope was 5 years old. He became Minnesota’s governor when she was 17. Walz says that when her father got involved in politics, her parents wanted to keep her life as “normal” and as normal as possible. Hope and Gus stayed in Minnesota with their mom, occasionally visiting Washington, D.C. for special events, like her dad’s swearing-in ceremony.
Walz also got a front-row seat to American democracy in action. She witnessed Nancy Pelosi being sworn in to become the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives. She remembered walking with her father across the Edmund Pettus Bridge as part of a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the civil rights marches between Selma and Montgomery, hosted by the then-President Barack Obama. Still, she always made it back home to Mankato, Minnesota in time for soccer practice
Kindness was a core family value growing up, Walz said. Walz said that her family motto was “good friend, good learner”. Walz explained that the family motto was: “good friend, a good learner.” Walz said she was never pressured to follow her father. Walz also approached her higher education with this spirit. Walz chose her major based on the lessons she learned as a child. She studied sociology at Montana State University with a minor that included women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. Walz graduated from college in 2023. She then decided to remain in Montana and work two jobs. One was as a staff at a local shelter where she helped set up beds for the homeless. She also works as a ski instructor.
But within a year, those plans would change. Walz’s father, who was busy settling into life after graduation in Montana, was steadily rising through the ranks of the Democratic Party. She boarded the plane from Montana to San Francisco, then on to Minneapolis. The next day, it was officially announced that her dad was chosen as Harris’ VP pick.
“You do work for your community because it makes the world a better place.”
– Hope Walz
And even though things happened quickly, Walz said she wasn’t entirely surprised that her dad was chosen.
“Honestly, I kind of felt like it was going to be him from the beginning, and I don’t really know how to explain that … Some people just have ‘it,’ and I feel like he’s one of those people that has ‘it,'” Walz said. “I know people will disagree, but I’ve watched him do this from when I was a child until now. It’s always been so natural to him and I think that’s why. “I’m like, yeah, this is what our politicians should be like.” “I’m like, well yeah, this is what our politicians should be like.”
She said it was nice to see her father get recognition for the work he’s done over his career.
“To finally be able to see him and to see him bring hope into so many people was just so cool and so fun,” Walz said.
Election Day
When Election Day rolled around, Walz joined her family at a D.C. hotel to watch the results come in. In the early evening of November 6, the Walz family and campaign staffers noticed it wasn’t going in their direction.
“We saw some stuff almost immediately, and we were like, ‘This is odd and this is not going well,'” Walz said.
Walz said she couldn’t handle the reality she was being forced to face.
“I just freaked out,” she recalled. “I was screamin’, crying.” She went to sleep, but only for a short time. “We lost,” he said. The Walz family returned to Minnesota just hours later. Only hours later, they were on their way back home to Minnesota.
‘I’ll never be a full-time influencer’
The week after the election, Walz posted 10 TikToks, racking up nearly 5 million total views. All of her posts went viral. As her audience started to grow, she shared more about her life, her view on unfolding political events, and words of encouragement for those struggling with the new administration.
“This country does not deserve Kamala Harris,” she said in a viral video dissecting the election results. The video prompted hateful messages and headlines from outlets like The U.S. Sun, who called her “Tim Walz’s raging daughter.”
Another TikTok, captioned “day 3 post election thoughts,” depicted Walz talking about how she got back to a routine that made her feel good–she finally showered, brushed her teeth, and did her skin care routine. She went on to encourage people to use the sadness and heaviness they were feeling as motivation.
“Change happens starting at the ground level, and if we lean into that I’m confident that we will be ok,” Walz said in the video.
The post received over 90,000 likes.
She returned back to Montana about a week after the election and started posting videos about politics. She began posting videos about politics a week after the election. “I think there’s space in the next four years for me to have an important voice.” “I think there’s space in the next four years for me to have an important voice.”
And as her follower count started to increase, so did the hate comments left on her videos.
Walz said she learned to “tune out the bullshit” through filtering her comment section and ignoring hate comments.
“I just can’t let it get to me–granted, sometimes I do,” she said.
She said she knows she’s done something right when a TikTok of hers is widely discussed on other social media platforms.
“If there are people on X saying horrible things about me, what I said was the correct thing to say,” Walz said.
Walz never expected the impact her online presence would have. Walz says she will continue to use social media but she won’t make it her full-time job. “That’s just not what I want.” Before this campaign she said that she wanted to live in Montana and get away from politics. “The people and places we visited are truly the best in America,” Walz stated. “People do want what’s best for other people, even though it seems hard to think that right now.”
She also said hitting the campaign trail gave her a sense of peace and confidence.
“I’m sure time would have got me there, but I feel like I grew so much in 90 days there,” Walz said. “
probably would have taken me years to get there had this not happened.”
Moving forward, she plans to pursue a master’s degree in social work and stay in the realm of public policy. Walz said she believes that having a social media presence will allow her to have a bigger impact in the public policy space. Walz believes that having a social media presence allows her to make a greater impact on public policy.
